Reach Out to the Truth
by Sarcastic Devotee
Summary: Chris has forced the TD cast to attend an academy for a new spinoff. But when members of the cast end up dead or missing, Noah and a few others are flung into a supernatural mystery where they must use the powers of gods of myth to survive and solve the case. It doesn't help that Noah's stuck rooming with Dave and Sky, and that four girls have an interest in him. Just fantastic.
1. Unhumble Beginnings

**Hello, there! This is a fusion fic of Total Drama, putting the characters from our favorite reality show parody into the plot of the video game, Persona 4. However, you don't have to know anything about Persona to read this, as many of the plot points will be changed to fit Total Drama more closely.**

**Pairings: The four girls in this fic that will have an interest in Noah are Izzy, Dawn, Katie, and Courtney. As to who Noah will pick, if any at all since it _is_ Noah we're talking about here, will be revealed much later. There will also be Skave, Gwody, Codierra, Duncney, Scax, and Gwuncan in this fic. All pairings that are canon as of Pahkitew Island will also still be canon.**

**The Island/World Tour cast are seniors in this, the Revenge of the Island cast are juniors, and the Pahkitew Island cast are sophomores.**

**So, let's get this show on the road, shall we?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama or Persona 4. Total Drama belongs to Fresh TV and Persona 4 belongs to Atlus. **

* * *

**Act I: An Unusual Mystery**

**Chapter One: Unhumble Beginnings**

* * *

**Friday, July 25th, 2014**

* * *

Pahkitew Island's finale had aired and soon to be high school senior, Noah Malakar, thought he had finally heard his last from Total Drama. After all, he hadn't been on the show since World Tour; so he originally felt confident that he was finally free from the dangerous reality show's grip. Yet here he was, staring down an ominous envelope he got in the mail from Chris McLean himself.

"Are you going to open it, sweetie?" his mother asked as they and two of Noah's older siblings sat in the Malakar's living room.

"And get dragged back to that freak show again?" he finally answered, shaking his head, "No way in hell- er, heck." A strict glare from his mother caused him to change his wording. She wasn't a big fan of curse words, after all.

"Come on, shorty," his older brother, a bulky guy named Sai prodded, "Didn't you like being famous?"

Noah arched an eyebrow and asked, "Since when is being eliminated third the first season and coming in eleventh the third being famous in the least?"

"Good point," Sai's twin sister, a glasses sporting girl named Sumia agreed, "Even little cousin Dave did better than you did, even if he did go crazy over a girl and get mauled by a bear."

"Hence why I said he shouldn't be allowed to watch that show," Noah reminded.

He scowled. Dave wasn't Noah's favorite cousin but Dave had a certain liking for Noah. In fact, it was indirectly through Noah that Dave learned about the show in the first place. He kind of wished that he could have been there to knock some sense into him but he was sure by now that Dave had learned his lesson.

"Well?" his mother prodded once more, "Are you going to open it?"

A frown crossed the bookworm's lips once more as he stared down the envelope in his hands. Finally deciding to get it over with, he ripped into the envelope, pulling out a letter from inside.

**_Dear, ex-Total Drama contestant,_**

**_Did you miss us? We certainly missed you! To prove it, we have some very special news for you! You've been cast as one of the residents of our newest reality show, After the Drama!_**

**_ Unfortunately, there won't be any challenges in this show. Our budget has severely been crippled by the wild challenges last season on Pahkitew Island. As we gear up for our newest season, Ridonculous Race, this show will be a slice of life showcasing you and the other contestants in a slice of life reality show detailing a year in the life of our favorite reality stars as they live at the prestigious Heavenly Plane Academy!_**

**_Now I know what you're thinking. "But Chris! I thought it was over!" According to your contract, no it isn't. Each contestant must have a minimum of five seasons before being released from the show. And thankfully, none of you have competed in five seasons yet! Isn't that great?_**

**_You are to report to Heavenly Plane Academy in Muskoka, Ontario on either Monday, September 1st or Tuesday, September 2nd to get settled into the dorms. First day of class begins Wednesday, September 3rd._**

**_We can't wait to see you all again!_**

**_-Chris McLean_**

Noah groaned, before remarking, "I hate that motherf-"

"Noah Carter Malakar!" His mother's stern voice cut his curse short.

* * *

**Saturday, August 2nd, 2014**

* * *

_'NOOOOOOAH!'_

_'NOAH NOAH NOAH!'_

_'NOAH BOA!'_

Noah stared at his phone and at the many text messages that he had received from Izzy. He just wanted to spend this weekend hanging around his house and playing video games. Maybe read some Shakespeare. The last person he really wanted to talk to was Miss Nutcase this weekend.

Yet he found himself finally giving in and texting back, '_What do you want, Izzy?'_

Almost immediately he found a text back from the red haired girl, to his surprise.

_'You're going 2 that academy reality show thing?'_

The bookworm rolled his eyes before texting back, '_Do any of us have a choice?'_

Once again Izzy sent back a quick answer, but to his surprise, her answer wasn't what he had expected:

'_Not me, LOL!'_

Noah stared at the text message, trying to make heads or tails of it. Did Izzy get captured by the RCMP again? Did she kill someone? What if this was just some long spiel to rope him and Owen into breaking her out of jail?

His smartphone dinged again. Yet another text from Izzy. That figured. However, instead of text, the wild child had sent him a link instead.

"I'm not falling for that, Izzy," he muttered under his breath. Many times Izzy had fooled the snarker by sending him screamers and creepypastas. But he wasn't going to click the link this time. Nope. Not at all. Not even curious.

...Okay, he admitted mentally, maybe a little.

He clicked the link and to his shock and awe, it was actually the link to a news article, and a shocking one at that. The title was "Reality TV Star, Izzy Crown, to Return to Acting." He had almost forgot that between Action and World Tour, Izzy had become a famous actress. He read through the article, learning that she had been offered a large sum of money to be cast in such a large role.

His only text back to the, most likely grinning widely Izzy was, '_Well, I'll be damned.'_

* * *

**Sunday, August 10th, 2014**

* * *

It was late in the afternoon in the Malakar house, with only Noah and his father currently at home, both sitting in the living room with a television on. Noah, however, had his head in a book; not because he didn't want to watch television, because he did want to see the news, but because of his father. The two had never gotten along due to his father having such a large fixation on sports.

"Why aren't you like your older brothers?!"

"All you do is louse around all day!"

"Get a job, you bum! And not on that stupid show of yours either!"

Those were just a few if the things he remembered hearing.

Noah hated to admit it, but he actually was looking forward to spending his senior year at that academy. While yes, he would miss his mother and _some _of his siblings, he was positive that he wouldn't miss his father in the least.

It was then that the newscaster on television caught his attention.

"This afternoon, ex-reality show star and prisoner, Scarlett Friday, has been reported missing from her cell in a prison of Ontario," the newscaster spoke, "Prior to her disappearance, she had been visited by fellow Total Drama castmates, Max Dow and Rodney Ronningen. None of them have been found. We have reason to believe that it is a hostage case. Ms. Friday is considered to be armed and dangerous and-"

"Pathetic," Noah heard his father, "That's just like a contestant on that stupid show."

Noah ignored his father, but the cogs in his head were turning. He had never personally met Max or Scarlett, but something here made no sense. Scarlett seemed to have disliked Max and most of the girls felt uncomfortable around Rodney, at least from what Noah saw by watching the season.

But the biggest kicker was, what would Scarlett get out of it by holding Rodney and Max hostage? From the episode she was eliminated in, it'd make more since if she had just murdered Max, Rodney, and anyone else in sight.

He was then broken out of his thoughts by his father's gruff voice and glare, "Did you hear me, Noah?"

The teenager rolled his eyes and snarked, mostly out of habit, "I was trying not to."

"Then I'll repeat it," his father replied, "You're not going to that academy."

"I don't have a-"

"Yes, you do," his father's voice raised in volume slightly, "Neither you nor Dave will be going. We'll forbid it."

"Like Uncle Joel and Aunt Sarah 'forbade' Dave?" Noah's voice continued to be filled with venom, "Yeah, they care about as much about them as you do about me."

His father looked at the carpet momentarily, "Say that again."

"You don't. Care."

Angrily, his father jumped up from his seat and yelled, "I don't care?! Why else would I push you to-"

"You push me to be like my brothers; that's all you do!" Noah didn't know what had come over him, but he was now in his father's face, "What do you not get by me not being them?!"

His father said nothing to begin with, but finally and stonily spoke, "You better get out of my face, son."

"Or what?" Noah spat.

The sound of a fist hitting clothes and a sharp pain in Noah's stomach filled his senses. His father widened his eyes as his son doubled over from the blow, air escaped from his lungs. The last thing he wanted to do was hit Noah.

Noah, on the other hand, was about just as shocked. Once he finally caught his breath, his shock and pain was replaced with hurt and exasperation.

The last words he spoke to his dad before he walked out of the house was, "I don't have to take this."

That was the last time Noah darkened the door of his family's Canadian home.

* * *

That evening, Noah sat in a different home; in a different bedroom. He was in none other than Owen McCord's house, sitting on an air mattress next to Owen's bed. When Noah texted Owen and asked for a place to stay, the lovable big-boned teen immediately said yes. Other than that, and Owen's Mom asking if Noah was alright, the two hadn't spoken since; mostly from Noah not coming down to eat dinner with the McCord's.

The smaller teen finally broke his silence, however.

"Thanks, Owen."

Owen grinned and jovially replied, "Anytime, little buddy! What are best buds for?!" When Noah didn't even smirk in response, Owen's smile faded. He wanted to talk to Noah, not have them constantly be in silence.

"I miss Iz, you know?" Owen asked, trying to start up conversation again.

"You miss her trying to kill you with her antics? I know Eva and I don't."

Owen knew that was a bald faced lie. Noah and Eva took it almost as hard as Owen. After all, the four of them had started hanging out ever since World Tour ended. Now that Izzy was back in Hollywood, their quartet had whittled down to three. And thanks to Eva not having enough in common with Owen, it had whittled down to two.

It sucked, to say the least.

"Come on, little buddy," Owen gently nudged his best friend, "You don't miss her just a little?"

Noah didn't reply at first. He did finally have to admit, "Yeah. Keeping you out of trouble isn't near as fun as keeping her out of it."

"Well, duh, that's obvious," Owen chortled, "I've never tried to get in a grinder before like Iz has, er, multiple times!"

"Although you did get us locked in the zoo one time," Noah reminisced, a smirk finally coming to his face, "I guess the four of us'd make decent zoo animals, huh?"

At that, the shorter teen finally joined Owen in laughter. After what felt like a full minute of giggling over something that wasn't funny, Owen spoke again.

"Y'know Courtney, right?"

Noah arched an eyebrow, "I don't think I'd forget someone who constantly spouts out about being a CIT. Why?"

"Well," Owen twiddled his thumbs before replying, "You do know that no one's seen her since All Stars, right?"

Of course Noah knew it. It was all over the news just like Max, Rodney, and Scarlett's disappearances. But unlike them, her and her family just seemed to vanish into thin air without a word.

"What's this got to do with the tea in China?" Noah half-asked, half-snarked.

"Well, err, I saw her today!" Owen explained, "We talked for a minute at the grocery store but she told me to not tell anyone that I saw her. She seemed... Different."

"Okay, first," Noah began, "She asks you not to tell anyone and then you told someone. Nice going, O."

Owen just grinned sheepishly as Noah continued, "And secondly, why didn't you alert the police to locate a missing woman instead of spilling the beans to me?"

"It just... Seemed to weird, you know?"

Noah was inclined to agree on that.

* * *

**Monday, September 1, 2014**

* * *

Despite being asked by his family to come home, Noah stayed with Owen for the next couple of weeks. The McCord's, of course, were happy to have Noah stay. He _was_ the least destructive out of Eva and Izzy, after all.

Even Dave and his half of the family asked Noah to come home. Either way, he rejected any notion of that. He wasn't really sure why either. It wasn't a good reason to leave. Maybe he was just tired of the humdrum life he had lived between World Tour and receiving Chris's letter. He hated to admit that fact.

As Owen snored on, Noah couldn't sleep. Tomorrow, they would be going to Heavenly Plane Academy to be under the spotlight once again. Surprisingly, however, that wasn't what was keeping Noah awake.

_"Another Total Drama alumni has gone missing," _he recounted what he heard on the news mentally, "_Dawn Medrek of Revenge of the Island fame was reported missing from her family's home in Toronto. This is the fifth in mysterious disappearances plaguing the Total Drama cast. Despite this, Chris McLean has announced that the franchise's school based spinoff, After the Drama, will still be filmed in the coming week."_

This wasn't natural or normal at all. Something was going on, and it was becoming more unbelievable by the day. Five out of the fifty-two Total Drama contestants had gone missing yet they were still being forced by the stupid contract to do the show.

It was just a hunch, but Noah believed Chris had something to do with this. It smelled too fishy.

Little did he know as he drifted off to sleep, that the dream he would have that night would'nt only change his life forever, but it would change the world's fate entirely.

This was the beginning of a mystery for the sake of mankind.

* * *

**What do you guys think? Let me know! **

**Next time: Two unlikely people appear in Noah's dream, and Noah and Owen make their way to Heavenly Plane Academy. Of course, Noah's roommates aren't quite who he wanted.**


	2. The Wild Card

**Act I: An Unusual Mystery**

**Chapter Two: The Wild Card**

* * *

The last thing Noah remembered doing was drifting off to sleep. Yet here he was in some sort of elevator, being stared down by two familiar faces. One had his mouth contorted into what Noah thought was supposed to be a smile. The other pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, trying her best to stay composed.

"...Uh-"

Noah was cut off by the male, "Welcome, mortal, to what we like to call the Velvet Room!"

The girl turned to the boy and rolled her eyes before turning back to Noah, saying, "You have no cause to be alarmed. You are currently in a deep sleep in the real world, where we are contacting you through your dreams."

"Allow me to introduce myself," with a grandiose gesture, the boy began, "My name is-"

"Max," Noah cut him off, before nodding towards Scarlett, "And you're Scarlett."

Max rubbed the front of his clothes, for some reason wearing what seemed to be a black tuxedo, "Oh, you've heard of me, have you?"

"He's from Total Drama, you dolt," Scarlett hissed, before inhaling through her nose to gain her composure.

Noah couldn't help but snicker, "For someone who tried to kill eight other people for money, I like the cut of your jib."

"Yes, well, for now, I'm unsure that I like the cut of _your _jib," was Scarlett's eloquent quip back, before turning to Max, "Are you sure that hunchback said he's the Wild Card?"

"Gee, sidekick, the hunchback has a name and it is _Igor," _the pale teen corrected Scarlett before turning back to Noah, "Now, I'm sure you have lots of questions. Come now! Don't be shy!"

"Here's one," Noah deadpanned, "What exactly did I eat last night to cause me to have this lucid dream?"

Scarlett adjusted her glasses once more before she spoke, "If you would, this dream transcends normal dream logic. Can you feel the force of the elevator going up? You should, anyway. And I would prefer if you wouldn't patronize us."

"Yeah!" Max added.

"Well, I would prefer if you wouldn't patronize _me_ anyway," her lips curled into a cruel smirk, "Feel free to patronize Max all you want."

"Hey!"

As Max and Scarlett devolved into bickering, Noah looked around the elevator. This was too vivid to be normal. What was worse, he could actually feel the elevator ascending endlessly, just like Scarlett had said.

Then again, in a world where mutant beavers, flying goats and robotic exoskeletons could exist, maybe this wasn't the most unbelievable situation in the world.

"So there, Nyah!" Noah tuned back into Max childishly sticking his tongue out at Scarlett before repeating to their guest, "Well, Noah? Any questions you have for us?"

Noah tapped his lip, formulating how to put his question, "Yeah, I do, actually. I thought you two went missing...?"

"That is correct," Scarlett replied with a curt nod, "And that is also the reason we bring you here. We'll attend to those details another time."

"Any more questions, mortal?" Max prodded.

"What the hell are you two _dressed_ as?" Noah asked, raising an eyebrow.

Max looked down at his tux before looking over at Scarlett, who was wearing what seemed similar to a blue flight attendant uniform.

"Hey, it came with the job description!" Max fired back at the cynic. Job description? This was a job?

Scarlett rolled her eyes and added, "Besides, I do not believe that you are one to talk. You literally wear a sweater-vest over a dress shirt over a t-shirt. Not very fashion friendly, may I add."

Noah looked down at himself. Instead of wearing his pajamas, he was wearing his usual clothes. He looked back up at the two before saying, "...Touché."

"Now then, about those details we must attend to," Scarlett had a look of satisfaction, "Max?"

Max cleared his throat, which quickly devolved into a coughing fit. Once he regained his composure, he spoke, "I'm not quite sure how to put this in a way you'll understand, mortal. But there's a supernatural entity looming around the Total Drama cast."

Noah stared at Max like he had grown a second head, "Uh, Ezekiel...?"

"I'm afraid a sexist zombie homeschooler is the least of our worries," Scarlett shook her head, "We seem to believe that a supernatural entity is looking to possess one of the contestants from Total Drama, and turn them into a killing machine, as long as they have killing intent. In other words, it is letting all of their twisted dreams come true, so to speak."

"Then wouldn't you be the first on its list?" Noah asked, crossing his arms.

Scarlett stared the tanned teenager right in the eyes and replied, "I was."

"...Oh." For once, the smart aleck didn't have anything to say.

"Because Rodney and I were there when it tried to enter my sidekick's body," Max explained, "It had no choice but to escape. Of course, it decided to take it with us."

"So you're dead," Noah's question came out more as a statement than anything else.

Scarlett shook her head, "We do not know all of the details, but it flung us to an extra dimension outside of the worlds we know." Her features hardened, "It may have been only a few weeks on Earth, but to us it was eons."

Noah at first wanted to laugh, but the genuine seriousness from Scarlett nipped that in the bud real fast. Max's also serious (for him) face added to the reality of the matter. Noah still believed that he was dreaming, but the force of the elevator once again reminded him otherwise.

Maybe he was hallucinating. Or at least he hoped so.

"Okay, back up," Noah shook his head, mostly to keep the room from spinning than anything, "If you two were transported to this dimension because of that... Whatever it is. Doesn't that mean it tried to get me too?"

"Uh, didn't we say that we contacted you through your dreams?" Max asked, "Wow! It sure is hard to find good Wild Cards these days!"

"Wild Card?" he repeated, baffled by what an Uno card had to do with the situation.

Scarlett cleared her throat, "You may want to sit down." She gestured her hand out, and as she did so, a chair seemed to appear behind the so-called Wild Card.

"Uh, how did you-"

"EONS," was all Max said, extending his arms and wiggling his fingers as he said.

"That doesn't answer my question!" Noah argued, but regardless, sat down in the chair that Scarlett supposedly prepared for him.

"Every person on earth is assigned a tarot card-"

"That fake junk people use to 'tell the future?'" Noah asked, putting fake quotation marks around the last three words with his fingers.

"Do not interrupt me."

"Geez, sorry."

"As I was saying," she continued, "Everyone is given a tarot card at birth. One of twenty-two to be exact. You have been dealt Number 0: The Fool. It is a card of endless emptiness, but also infinite potential."

"And to really put the icing on the cake, so to speak," Max chimed in, "You have been dealt the Wild Card. This puts you right in the middle of this situation as a formidable player, and as my nemesis!"

"We're here to help him, you buffoon," Scarlett scolded, "Not be his nemesis, even if this does make him a goody goody. He's the Wild Card of our dimension, after all. He'll finally be capable of freeing us."

"A goody goody?" Noah asked, "What does any of this have to do with- Aah!"

Noah shielded his eyes, as light flooded into the room. Scarlett and Max exchanged knowing glances, as if they had really been stuck in this limbo for generations.

"Shit," Scarlett cursed, "You're about to wake up."

"We'll attend to the details another time," Max concluded, "Until then, farewell, Wild Card!"

Before Noah could say anything, he had awakened from his dream and was back in Owen's bedroom.

* * *

**Tuesday, September 2nd, 2014**

* * *

"Coming, little buddy?" Owen called up the stairs.

"Not... Ugh... All of us have the... Argh! Upper body strength of an ox, you know!" Noah exclaimed, struggling to bring his suitcase down the stairs of the McCord house. It was then that he slipped, sending the suitcase flying down the stairs and towards Owen. The other teen screamed and leapt out of the way, barely dodging the suitcase as it barreled into Owen's.

Noah stood back up and brushed himself off, wide eyed, "...Oops."

Owen's response was completely the opposite, however, "That... Was... Awesome! You should totally screw up and slip like that more often- I mean! That's not at all what I meant!"

"Thanks, Owen," Noah deadpanned, as he walked down the stairs and stood by his best friend.

Before Owen could reply, Mr. and Mrs. McCord scooped the two boys up in their strong arms, pulling them into a hug.

"We're going to miss you, Owen!" Owen's mom exclaimed, overcome by emotions.

"To think that our little boy is on his way to college," Owen's dad added, in a much more emotional state than his wife, "They grow up so fast!"

"Uh, Dad?" Owen asked, "I appreciate it, but I'm just a senior!"

"Oh, right!"

"Can't... Breathe..." Noah wheezed out from in the middle of the McCord family bear hug. It was then that the three released each other from the hug, dropping Noah onto the floor.

"Sorry about that, Noah," Owen's mom apologized, "Are you okay?"

"My coccyx'll heal," he rubbed at his lower back, as he stood back up. If this was a sign of what today was like, he was wanting to go back to bed, pronto.

"Our boys better take good care each other," Owen's dad chuckled, "Got it?"

"Yes, sir!" Owen saluted with a grin.

"You do know that I'm technically not one of your boys, right?" Noah deadpanned.

"'Course you are!" Owen's mom winked, "Just like Eva and Izzy are our girls, too!"

in a backwards way, Noah figured, that was one of the sweetest things he had ever heard. He had always felt at home at the McCord house, but at the same time, he was glad they were on their way to Heavenly Plane Academy. He wasn't planning on going home anytime soon and he didn't want to mooch off of them too long.

"Ready, Noah?" Owen broke the smaller teen out of his thoughts.

He shrugged "As I'll ever be."

* * *

The bus ride was uncomfortable, but at least it was a public transit bus and not one of McLean's rarely maintenanced doom buggies. Noah was quiet most of the ride there, which was alright, since Owen tended to fall asleep on bus rides. Every once in a while he'd receive a text from Izzy or heard Owen's phone going off, assuming it was the same thing. He also saw a text once from Eva, mostly her complaining about how lame it was that they were being forced over there once again. He didn't blame her.

Besides, his thoughts were more on that dream.

Was that dream real? It couldn't be. It was a dream, probably caused by all of the news reports about missing Total Drama contestants recently. However, this didn't satisfy Noah. It felt real. Like it was too vivid to just be a dream. Was it possible that Max and Scarlett had been transferred to another dimension that transcended normal laws of space and time? No. That was just crazy.

"Hey, kid!" Noah snapped out of his thoughts, as the bus driver called out, "End of the line! This your stop?"

Noah stared out the window. Yeah, this was Muskoka, alright. Almost a country hick area in his honest opinion. He just gave a nod to the bus driver.

"Then wake up your friend here and get on out!"

Noah turned to Owen and nudged him once, "Owen, it's time to go."

Owen licked his lips, still in a deep sleep, "No, mommy, I don't wanna go to summer school..."

"Oh, look!" Noah feigned excitement, "It's an all you can eat Thanksgiving dinner buffet!"

This woke Owen up in a heartbeat. He started looking out the window, crying out, "Where?! Where?!"

"Oops, we just passed it," the other teen deadpanned, "Come on. We're here. It's still quite a walk to that school I think."

"Headed to Heavenly Plane Academy, are ya?" the bus driver asked, "Are you two part of that Total Drama show?"

"We sure are!" Owen exclaimed before asking, "Why?"

"Oh, just wonderin'," a wicked smirk spread across the bus driver's lips as he opened the bus door and called out as loud as he could, "Hey, Paparazzi! Got two more for you!"

Owen and Noah paled as what seemed to be an army of tabloid reporters storming into the bus. Tabloids had always been a given when it came to Total a Drama, but not like this. It most likely had to do with the disappearances and the fact that they were still going on with their spinoff despite all of the commotion.

"What exactly compelled you two to come back to Total Drama?"

"Aren't you two afraid of the recent emergence of disappearances within the cast?"

"Do either of you have dirt on Chris McLean?" This was just a few of the questions the two boys had been hounded with.

"Noah, the window!" Owen exclaimed, "You climb through it and I'll meet you at the school later!"

"As cliche as this is gonna sound," Noah replied, "Don't try to be a hero, Owen."

"Oh, I'm not, I'm gonna charge through 'em!" At the sound of that, several of the reporters backed up. When Owen tried, he could be unbelievably strong physically. The last thing they wanted or needed was being pushed to the ground by season one's winner. Noah nodded to Owen as he stood up from his seat and opened the window.

"Godspeed, chubby buddy," Noah saluted his best friend as he climbed through the bus window...

...to land on his butt on the hard concrete.

He scrambled up and begun to run down the road, comically meeting up with Owen, who was carrying both boys's suitcases in his arms as they were chased by the reporters.

"I don't remember," Owen said between hard pants, "us being, ugh, _this_ popular!"

"Yeah and we didn't have any missing contestants, either!" Noah replied, "Err, if you don't count Zeke and Duncan."

"They're almost at the school!"

At that proclamation, both boys noted that it was probably time to have less talking and more running.

* * *

"Well, well, well!" Chef Hatchet exclaimed when Noah and Owen entered the dormitory, "Better late than never, huh?"

Noah and Owen were both way too tired from running to answer and were trying to catch their breath. If it was at any other moment, Noah would have given a sarcastic remark back to the ex-soldier.

"Here's 'ya dorm keys," Chef continued after rattling around in a conspicuous pile of keys, before tossing them at the boys, Noah's going over his head and Owen getting hit in the face by his, "Each room's already stocked with your schedules and a map of the school. Scrawny kid, you're on the second floor. Tubby, you're on the third. Any questions?"

"Yeah, uh-"

"Good!" Chef interrupted Owen, before screaming, "Now get on up 'at your rooms, and don't be late for supper! I don't slave over a hot stove for nothin'!"

* * *

Noah parted ways with Owen and walked down the hallway of the second floor. The thought of Chef Hatchet still providing the meals was a disturbing thought to him. Most likely, the network that owned Total Drama paid Heavenly Plane Academy loads of cash to host the spinoff there; _especially_ if it meant that Chef would become one of their personal cafeteria chefs.

As his suitcase rolled behind him, every once in a while, Noah would look down at his room key. Room 215. Since this was a dormitory academy, he'd most likely have a roommate or two. To make matters worse, this _was_ Chris McLean's idea. Knowing Noah's luck he would most likely have to room with people he didn't particularly care for, like Alejandro or Justin or Duncan. Just great.

211... 213... 215. Noah stopped outside of the door, hearing the sound of arguing coming from inside. To his surprise, it was a female's voice and the voice of a male he knew very well.

"You could have least have told me! How hard would that have been?!"

"You're acting as if I'm the only one at fault here!"

"You are!"

"Oh, really? So you're conveniently forgetting that you actively tried to kill me in the finale?"

It was then that Noah inserted his key and turned the knob, walking into the entryway of the dorm room. None other than Dave and Sky stared back at him.

"Noah?" was Dave's confused question. He knew that Noah would most likely be there, but not as his roommate of all things.

"Oh, no, continue arguing," Noah said as he set his suitcase near the door, "I've got anywhere to be but here."

Walking back out into the hallway and closing the door behind him, Noah stopped and pinched the bridge of his nose. He definitely needed to get some air.

And maybe some aspirin.

He made his way back down the hall and back towards the staircase. He stopped when he heard two voices arguing by the staircase.

"Jasmine, I'm sorry!"

"Sorry doesn't cut it, Shawn! You're losing it!"

"I'm not losing it! I'm getting better! I promise!"

"Then why did you say those things to Staci and Beardo? Why won't you just trust me that for once in your life, you're safe!"

"But what if the zombies did get all those missing guys?"

On second thought, maybe Noah would go the back way.

* * *

One of the rear exits to the college, containing a small basketball court nearby, was the best place to go if you didn't want paparazzi all in your face. Nearby, Lightning, Brick, and Jo were playing basketball together while Noah sat on the sidelines, hoping no one would notice him.

He had so many questions, but so little time to get them answered. The first was, why did he have to have his cousin and his ex-first love as roommates? The second was, since when was it ethical to make high school dorm rooms co-ed?

It was times like these that he understood why his older brother, Sai, took up smoking when he went to college.

"Hey, soldier," he heard Brick call from afar, "I'm a little outnumbered here! Wanna be my teammate?"

That was an automatic no for Noah. Saying nothing, he stood up and started to make his way back towards the door, only to hear Jo command Lightning:

"Cut him off at the door! He'd make winning against Brick-head over here so much easier!"

Lightning, much faster than the scrawny bookworm, ran in front of him and blocked the door. Noah turned around, almost tripping over his own two feet in the process and ran around to make a loop around the building. Hell, tabloid reporters sounded like nothing compared to having to play sports with Brick, Jo, and Lightning of all people.

To his relief, he could hear Lightning say, "Oh, sha-forget it! Brick's already win in' anyway!" He mentally thanked Brick's athletic skills and cadet training.

It was then that he crashed directly into another teenager. He muttered out, "Watch where you're going will- ...What the hell?"

A short, blonde girl in a (currently relatively dirty) green hoodie sat on the ground directly in front of him. With all of the news going on about the missing contestants, it was easy to tell that the girl was one of them.

"You're... Dawn?"

The girl said nothing and raised the hood of her hoodie, standing up and beginning to walk off. Noah stood up as well, crossing his arms. Something about this was strange.

"Are you going to answer me or not?" he asked.

"I can't," was her simple response, "I apologize."

"You do know you probably have your family out looking for you, right?" Noah continued on, "As much as it goes against my general principles, doesn't that seem stupid not to tell them that you're alright?"

Instead, Dawn replied with, "May I offer you a word of advice?"

"Since you're not listening to a single thing I've said," he deadpanned, "Sure."

"A great danger is about to befall us," were her cryptic words, "If you're really the Wild Card, the best advice I can give is, don't get involved with what's about to happen. It'll be a wasted effort, I have to sadly admit."

"W...Wild Card?" Noah repeated. An uncomfortable feeling began to swell in his chest and stomach. Either Total Drama's resident aura reader had finally lost it, Noah had finally lost it, or that dream he had was genuinely real. At this point, he was greatly hoping for the first of those three options.

Without another word, Dawn went off towards the fence separating the college from some uncut trees. She struggled to hop the fence due to her height, but she finally was able to do so after a few seconds.

Noah jumped a bit when he was tapped roughly on the shoulder. The person behind him raised her hands in defense, saying, "Woah, easy there, shrimp."

He breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh. It's only you, Iron Woman."

"Only me, huh?" Eva scoffed, but smirked nevertheless, "Uh, you like you saw a ghost or somethin'. You alright?"

"...It's been a long bus ride," Noah half-lied. Eva had to have seen Dawn if he wasn't going crazy. Why else would she have asked that?

She exhaled some air from her nose in response, "Whatever. Already been to your room?"

"Unfortunately."

"That bad, huh?" she held back from chuckling scornfully. By that, Noah could tell that she had no better luck with roommates.

"Since when are the dorms co-ed?" he asked, "That's like a lawsuit waiting to happen."

"If that CIT witch was still around, it'd definitely happen," Eva replied with a shrug, "It's probably another way Chris is using this to get ratings. Like that stupid Real World show, I guess."

"Figures."

Eva clapped a hand down on Noah's shoulder, asking, "Sure you're not dyin'? You're green around the gills."

Noah snorted, "Who uses a term like that nowadays?" To be honest, though, a wave of nervous nausea was taking its course. Even worse then when he saw Dawn. Not that he'd tell that to Eva.

"Noah!"

The two turned to see none other than Dave running towards him. Eva raised her unibrow and asked, "You know him?"

"Unfortunately," he replied, "He's my cousin."

"Sucks to be you," Eva smirked, before saying, "I'm headed back to my dorm. Talk later."

"Later, Iron Woman," he called as the bodybuilder made her way back towards the back entrance. Before he knew it, Dave had stopped in front of him.

"This has Chris written all over it, doesn't it?" the younger of the two cousins asked.

"Obviously," Noah agreed, "Look. I like you and all, but can you please get over the whole Sky thing?"

Dave frowned, having a mix of hurt and annoyance from Noah's blunt attitude. Then again, he knew Noah better than most of the contestants here so he knew it was coming regardless. As Noah began to rub his temples, Dave raised an eyebrow in concern.

"You okay?"

"I'm nauseous and I feel like I'm going to get a migraine," he admitted, "I just want some water and want to lay down."

Dave shrugged, "There's some nice cold bottles of water in the fridge. Wanna go back to the room?"

Noah felt like he had no choice in the matter.

* * *

"Here you go," Dave handed Noah a bottle of water as the bookworm sat between his younger cousin and a Sky on the couch.

"Thanks," Noah muttered as he unscrewed the lid and took a sip. He was feeling tired all of a sudden. As if something was exhausting him at an alarming late.

Sky noticed this and asked, "Do you think you could be coming down with something?"

"I don't get sick often outside of allergies," he replied, shaking his head.

"Huh, must run in the family," she noted with half-sincerity and half-venom; the sincerity aimed towards Noah and the venom aimed towards Dave.

"I'm right here, you know!" The younger Indian boy exclaimed, crossing his arms.

"Headache, remember?" Noah complained, taking another swig of the bottled water.

"Right," Dave apologized, trying to muster up a smile to his older cousin, "Sorry, man."

"So, how do you two know each other?" the half-Asian and half-Cree girl asked out of curiosity.

"We're cousins," the two answered almost in unison, causing them to look at each other with raised brows.

"Right," Sky nodded, before looking down at the floor awkwardly, "I guess you're on his side, huh?"

Before Noah could either confirm or deny those suspicions, Dave stood up from the couch, yelling, "Look, if you have something against me, you don't have to-"

"What I have against you is you tried to kill me, remember?!" she stood up as well, crossing her arms.

"I just wanted to burn the money in front of you!"

"And that's any better?!"

If Noah's head wasn't already pounding, he most likely would have got up and pounded his head on the wall. What part of, "I have a migraine," did they not understand?

"Fine!" Dave shouted, walking over to the door, "If this is what we're doing, then I'm not staying here tonight!"

"Pray tell, where you're going?" Noah's response came out more agitated than he wished it would.

"To Shawn, Jasmine, Staci, and, I hate to say this, but... Beardo's shared dorm," he said before stepping out and slamming the door.

At the sound of the door slamming, Sky sat back down at the couch, her hands gripped into fists. Noah took another drink of his water as tension and awkwardness began to fill the air. After a couple of minutes of silence, Noah finally spoke again.

"Dave mentioned Shawn, Jasmine, Staci and Beardo sharing a room. Do we have a fourth roommate or something?"

Sky shook her head, "No. You and Dave'll be sharing one of the bedrooms in here. I have the other one to myself."

That made sense. They most likely had to take what they could get, and since a good majority of the contestants were missing, some of the rooms for the Total Drama cast would most likely be not be completely filled.

"I'm gonna go lay down," he stood up, "Good night."

"Good night," she replied with a nod. With that, Noah went over to his and Dave's shared room, more than a little relieved that he would be in it alone for the night.

* * *

The last thing Noah remembered was drifting to sleep. Suddenly, he was in a long, foggy corridor. The sounds of hushed whispering surrounded him, while the noise of gentle footsteps could be heard in the distance.

To Noah's surprise, his legs began to move on their own, moving him down the corridor. With every step he took, the hushed whispering became louder and more frenzied while the fog would become thicker and bleaker with each raise of volume.

Before he knew what was happening, he had stopped in front of a large red door. The door slowly but surely began to open up. Against his better judgement, he stepped through the door, leading him into an even foggier room. A figure stood in the middle of the cloaked room, letting out a distorted chuckle.

"So, you're the one pursuing the truth," the figure spoke, "I'm surprised. I expected someone else."

"The truth?" Noah asked, "I-"

"Try as much as you like, but you will not catch me," the figure taunted, "If what you seek is 'truth,' then your search will be even harder, Wild Card."

Noah shook his head, "I'm not searching for anything. Don't... Call me that name."

"Now, now, Wild Card," the figure reprimanded, "Everyone sees what they want to see. It isn't my fault that you're rejecting who you are."

The figure stepped forward, still cloaked in shadows and fog, outstretching their hand towards Noah and saying, "Once you accept this, we'll meet again. Try to stop me if you can."

Right as the figure's hand touched Noah's face, he awoke from his dream.

Little did he know was that the killer had struck their first victim that night.

* * *

**So Noah's role in the conspiracy has been defined but for now, he's denying it. Meanwhile, Max, Scarlett, and Dawn seem to have ties to the incoming mystery. Any guesses as to what their role is? Or better yet, any guesses as to who the first victim will be? Let me know what your thoughts are!**

**Next time: The first day of both school and the show begins for Noah and the other contestants, as a dead body is found near the academy.**


	3. The Corpse in the Fog

**Act I: An Unusual Mystery**

**Chapter Three: The Corpse Amidst the Fog**

* * *

**Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014**

* * *

Noah sat up in his bed, breathing heavily. Another strange dream, only this time it was more of a nightmare than a dream; that was for sure. He turned to face the alarm clock, presumably Dave's, that sat on the night stand between the two cousins' beds.

7:30 AM. Class started at 8 AM, sharp, at least according to Noah's brochure. He gave a groan before standing up and beginning to get ready for the first day of school.

_I hope today is less insane than yesterday, _he thought to himself. He didn't know how wrong he could possibly be.

* * *

Noah and Sky exited their rooms into the cramped, shared living space of their dorm roo at the same time. Sky, doing some morning stretches, was the first to speak.

"Good morning. Feeling any better?"

"As I'll ever be," Noah replied, shrugging, "Did Dave come back last night?"

She shook her head, "No. I don't think so, anyway

The awkward silence returned, as Noah tucked his notebook he got out of his suitcase under his arm and Sky continued her morning routine.

"Hey."

"Hm?" Sky paused, dropping her arms to the side.

"Dave is just as at fault about this than you," he began, "Moreso. You told him that you weren't in the place for a relationship and he took it way too far, especially in the finale."

"So you're not on his side?" she asked in surprise.

Noah shrugged, "I'm not on any side. I mean, yeah, you probably should have told him, but it takes two to argue. Besides, you didn't try to kill him or anything like he did you. But I just don't know if my sanity can stand you two fighting if I'm supposed to be living with you guys for a year."

"I don't really get why seniors would room with sophomores," Sky mused, tapping her lip, "It doesn't make much sense."

"It's Chris McLean," the cynic scoffed, "Does _anything_ he has a part in ever make sense?"

"Good point," the athlete smiled before asking, "We can be friends, right?"

"I don't really have much in common with jocks," Noah rolled his eyes but added, "But I am friends with Tyler, so I guess another athlete won't hinder my laziness _too _much_."_

"Who knows?" she shrugged before teasing, "Maybe I'll break that lazy streak you have, huh?"

He rolled his eyes. "Don't press your luck."

* * *

The two roommates decided since they both woke up around the same time that they'd walk to class together. It'd give them a chance to figure out how they would have them and Dave work well as roommates, they figured.

"I know Dave has to have things clean and I have to have things quiet," Noah spoke as they walked down the hall, "Anything you need to feel comfortable?"

"Personal space," was her simple answer.

"Amen to that," the bookworm agreed with a nod.

"It'll probably work out well for all three of us in the long haul," she reasoned, "At least until we get used to living with each other, you know?"

He shrugged, "Might as well- What the hell am I seeing?"

The two stopped to see none other than Sierra planting a firm kiss on Cody's lips. That wasn't the surprising part. The surprising part was that Cody actually reciprocated. Some of the cameras for the show were on the two, recording it for the entire viewing world to see.

"Jealous?" Sky teased, nudging her roommate in the ribs.

Noah rolled his eyes and responded, "Honey, I think I could do a lot better than Cody of all things."

"Who said I was talking about Cody?" she arched an eyebrow, amusedly.

"Then replace his name with Sierra's," he smirked, "Not much difference."

"See you in homeroom, Codykins!" they heard Sierra exclaim before running off, "I'm gonna run across the street and get something to snack on! Love you!"

Cody waved at her as she went off, replying nervously, "Err, love you too, Sierra!"

"'Love you too, Sierra?'" Noah snarked, letting out an amused chuckle as he and Sky walked over to the computer geek.

"Uh, yeah, what else did it seem like?" Cody asked in response, although his voice still seemed to waver a bit.

"It's been a while since I watched season three, but weren't you and Sierra just friends last time I checked?" Sky asked in confusion.

"Oh, you're Sky, right?" Cody moved back into his usual flirty personality, "You totally should have won last season, by the way."

"Uh, you seem to have a girlfriend?" she crossed her arms, unamused.

"Not only that," Noah added, "but you seem to be dodging the question."

Cody rubbed the back of his neck, "Oh, uh, sorry Sky, I didn't mean it like that. Yeah, uh, Sierra and I are dating."

"If only we were near a window so I could see if pigs suddenly knew how to fly," Noah quipped, enjoying the situation a lot more than he probably should have.

"Yeah, I don't see you flying," Cody shot back. Despite their rude comments to each other, he and Noah were actually pretty close friends. Sure, Cody was closer to Sierra and surprisingly, Heather, and Noah was closer to Owen, Izzy, and Eva, they were still decently friendly to each other.

"Alright, kids, break it up," Sky remarked before asking, "So, how'd it happen, anyway?"

"Yes, enlighten us- Ow!" Noah was promptly shut up by Sky nudging him in the ribs once again, "You know, if we're gonna be friends, could you lay off prodding me in the ribs?"

"If you lay off the scathing comments, maybe," she shrugged.

Cody laughed, "Yeah, like _that's_ possible."

"Will you just answer the question?" the Indian teen interrogated, rolling his eyes.

"Well," the gap-toothed geek rubbed the back of his neck again, "After Sierra got eliminated on All Stars, she told me that she still had feelings for me and-"

"No, really?" Noah interrupted, his voice dripping with sarcasm. However, he quickly shut up when Sky looked as if she was going to nudge him again.

"And, well, I decided, what could it hurt?" Cody continued, "I mean, Sierra's always cared of me and stood beside of me. And Gwen obviously doesn't want something to happen between us." He frowned for a second before asking, "Does that answer your question, Sky?"

"Yeah, it does-" the Olympic athlete was cut off by the bell ringing, "Crap! We're going to be late to class! Uh, later, guys!"

To both Noah and Cody's shock, Sky took off running down the hall like a rocket. Of course, comparing one of the most physically fit competitors with the least physically fit competitors like them was definitely going to be a large gap.

* * *

Cody and Noah walked into the room, Cody going to sit over by Tyler and Lindsay while Noah scanned the classroom briefly. Only three seats were left open, one supposedly for him and one supposedly for Sierra. Thanks to the over-saturation of students, it was massively cramped in the classroom. This wasn't surprising to Noah, since twenty-two new students from the first three seasons in one classroom, plus any other seniors who already went to this academy? It was obvious that it would be cramped and stuffy.

It didn't help that in the parts of the room that should have been empty were filled with camera crews.

The students paid attention mostly to Alejandro, Duncan, and Gwen. Also not too surprising if you asked Noah.

He stumbled forward as Ezekiel bumped past him, explaining, "Sorry, eh! I slept in!" The initial shock at Ezekiel seeming to finally be back to normal was strong, but short lived, as Noah was pushed out of the way by none other than Chris McLean.

"Outta the way," the host exclaimed, "Host- I mean, _teacher_ coming through!"

Noah walked over to one of the empty desks between Gwen and Owen and sat there for a moment before asking in revelation, "Wait. _Teacher_?"

"Who in the right mind would give _you _a_ teaching degree?" _Heather added, crossing her arms incredulously. Alejandro, who was sitting next to her, had just as big of an annoyed scowl as his girlfriend did.

"Oh, before I got on Skating with the Stars and got true fame, I got a teaching degree," Chris replied, beaming in amusement, "Besides, it'll be just like old times!"

"Yeah," Harold stated exasperatedly, "Old times where you tortured us every day."

"I know, huh?" the ex-host just chuckled before wistfully remembering, "Good times, good times..."

"Isn't this technically illegal?" Bridgette asked, "I mean, you can't have dangerous challenges in a school setting."

"Yeah, man," Geoff agreed, "That ain't kosher!"

"Well, duh," Chris spoke matter-of-factly, "Do I look like I wanna go to jail again? Because I definitely would if I hosted challenges here."

The entire class sighed in relief. Chris raised a finger to silence them.

"But! That doesn't mean I'm still not allowed to mess with your personal lives and perpetuate drama there! I mean, you gotta have ratings, right?"

The contestants glared at Chris while the non-contestants laughed. Sure, this would be an easier situation than it could have been. But still, they were forced there against their will. That was bad enough on its own.

"Is it graduation day, yet?" Gwen scowled, speaking to no one in particular.

"Better yet," Noah added, "Can't we just reverse time to before this spinoff ever happened? I'd rather elope to the Himalayas than be here."

"Or better _yet_," the goth smirked, Reverse time all the way back to before we ever signed up for this crappy show."

"Preach it, sister," Noah chuckled.

"Alright, enough jabbering!" Chris exclaimed, "All cameras on me! I'm taking roll!"

Noah could already tell this would be a long year.

* * *

As everyone thought, Chris was not the model of a good teacher. He took no time in lecturing effectively, rolled off into spiels about his life (even if it had no rhyme or reason to be brought up with the lesson, and just altogether catered to the cameras more than the students.

The non-contestants learned then why none of the contestants liked Chris.

"That's all for today's homeroom, Campers!" Chris exclaimed, "Normal lectures start tomorrow on... After! The! Drama!"

"There's so many things wrong with that sentence that I don't even know where to start," Duncan remarked. For once in his life, Noah was inclined to agree with the now freed prisoner.

As everyone began to gather up their jugs and get ready to exit the class, a soun. Of the PA turning on caught the attention of the students.

"Attention all teachers," the secretary's voice rang out over the intercom, "Please report immediately to the Faculty Office for a brief staff meeting. All students are to stay in their classrooms and are not to leave until further notice.

Noah scowled. He really just wanted to get his classes over and done with for the day as quickly as possible. Being trapped in a confined classroom with people he was on a reality show with wasn't really something he wanted to do in the least. And from the exasperated reactions around him, he wasn't the only one.

"Ugh!" Chris exclaimed in annoyance, before ordering the camera crew, "Stop rolling and have it cut to commercial in editing. You! Get me a latte for the staff meeting, pronto!" A lowly intern sighed as he followed Chris out of the room. Noah felt a little bad for the guy. He knew how bad it was to be McLean's lackey for money.

"We should lock the door before he gets back," LeShawna offered, an amused smile playing across her lips, "If we had a key, that is."

A few of her fellow students laughed with the lively girl as the room began to fade into multiple conversations. Owen turned to face Noah with a grin.

"How's your roommates, little buddy?"

"I'd rather be stuck with your chipotle farts, to be honest," Noah deadpanned. Honestly, it would probably be less detrimental to his sanity in the long run in his mind.

"Mmm, chipotle," Owen stared off in the distance dreamily before shaking his head, "That bad, huh?"

"Dave's my cousin, so I have to like him for better or for worse," the bookworm explained with a sigh, "But this 'my first love broke my heart' thing is getting old fast."

"Well, it took me a while to get back to normal when me and Izzy broke up," Owen shrugged, "Maybe he'll snap out of it, soon!"

Noah scoffed, "You also didn't try to kill Izzy either. Well, outside of pushing her into a serial killer."

"That was one time!"

"Yeah, and you thought you were still going to get to second base afterwards," Noah chuckled dryly, before asking, "Who's your roommates?"

"DJ, Eva and Geoff," Owen answered. As he said that, it was then when one of his roommates approached him.

"Sup, Owen?" DJ asked, coming up to the other side of the oaf.

"Hey, DJ!" he replied, grinning, "What's up?"

"Nothing much, but I did get a new recipe I wanted to tell you about."

Noah tuned them out there. All of the different conversations going on wasn't helping the remnants of his headache at all. The sound of a siren from outside caused it to tense up momentarily, and cause several of the others to turn their attention to the window.

"Gosh!" Harold exclaimed, now standing by the window, "I can't see anything with all of this fog in the way!"

"I heard this place gets foggy really easily," Trent, who was standing by him and Justin, replied, "I've never seen any fog with a green tint before."

This caught Noah's attention. He turned his head towards the window and widened his eyes. Trent wasn't kidding. The fog had an eerie green tint to it. It could have been another one of life's mysteries, he supposed.

Yet a nagging suspicion made him wonder if there wasn't something more to it.

"Didn't Gwen live in this town before?" Justin asked, "I mean I'm not sure why anyone would live in the sticks, but maybe she'd know if its normal or not." Noah was impressed. His brainless anti-me actually made a good point for once.

"Yeah, she said she lived here for a couple years before she moved to Toronto," Trent confirmed.

"Go ask her, then!"

Trent widened his eyes and looked nervous. "Uh, me? Why me?"

"Well, you know her better," Harold offered.

"Yeah, but we're exes and-" the musician was cut off by Justin shoving him forward towards Gwen's desk. The exes eyes met temporarily before Trent began to rub the back of his neck nervously.

"Uh, hey, Gwen."

"Oh," a similar awkwardness fell over the goth, "Hey, Trent. What's up?"

"Uh, right," he replied, "About that green fog-"

She shook her head, "We used to never get fog here. At least not when I lived here. If that's what you're asking, of course."

"Oh, okay then, just checking," he chuckled before flashing an uneasy grin and making his way back to Harold and Justin to relay the information. It was then that none other than Katie and Sadie made their way up to Gwen.

"Hey, Gwen!" Katie greeted, "We're going to be doing a new vlog today, right?"

"We wanna know because we totes wanna get ready for it," Sadie added, "You know, no green shorts mess ups or anything, right?"

"I did say that we would, didn't I?" Gwen mused, tapping her painted lips with a slender finger, "And there is a Save the Penguins Foundation I wanted to get the country aware of."

"So it's a yes?" Sadie asked, eyes lighting up.

"Sure, why not?" The goth shrugged indifferently.

It was then that the two best friends burst out into their signature squealing "EEEEEEEE!" Noah, Gwen, and a few others directly around those seats cringed at the sound of the noise.

"Okay, okay, enough squealing!" Gwen exclaimed before trying to change the subject, "Let's see, what's something less 'Eee' worthy?" She gave a low hum as she began to think for a moment. It was then that she remembered.

"Did you guys hear that rumor?"

"What rumor?" Katie asked, shaking her head.

"That blank channel on TV," Gwen elaborated, "That you're supposed to watch on rainy nights? Channel 666?"

"Ohhhh, I have!" Sadie replied, "I just haven't tried it yet!"

"Oh, same here!" Katie chimed in, "But I'm way surprised that you'd be into something like that, Gwen."

It was there that Noah tuned them out. It sounded no more than something like an urban legend, and he was more often than most cynical towards those. They were just a gimmick to freak people out and could be explained easily. A blank television channel? That definitely sounded like the least believable one he had ever heard. He wasn't surprised that Katie and Sadie believed things like that, but Gwen?

He was broken out of his thoughts by the intercom dinging once more.

"Attention, all students," the secretary spoke once more, "There has been an incident in the area surrounding Heavenly Plane Academy. Police officers have been dispatched around the school. Because of this, the rest of your classes have been cancelled for the day. Please do not disturb the officers and head straight to your dorm rooms until further notice."

"An incident?" Noah meant for that to be thought, not spoken. An incident usually meant something serious. Really serious. A pit of nervousness began to swell in his stomach.

"_We_ _seem to believe that a supernatural entity is looking to possess one of the contestant's from Total Drama and turn them into a killing machine, as long as they have killing intent," _he remembered Scarlett's words, "_In other words, it is letting all of their twisted dreams come true, so to speak."_

He also remembered Dawn's words, "_A great danger is about to befall us. If you're really the Wild Card, the best advice I can give is to not get involved with what's going to happen. It'll be a wasted effort, I have to sadly admit."_

This couldn't be him going crazy. That dream had to be real; his conversation with Dawn all but confirmed it. He was going to do everything in his power not to get involved. If that would keep him safe, or Owen and Eva and Izzy safe, or Dave safe, then that's what he'd do.

Wild Card or not, it wasn't his problem.

"Hey, Noah!" he heard Sadie's voice, "You're in the second floor dorms, right?"

"Sadie, no," Katie roughly whispered to her best friend.

Noah nodded but arched an eyebrow, asking, "Yeah. Why?"

"We're going to go film a new vlog," Gwen didn't seem all that thrilled with what they were asking but shrugged nevertheless, "Sadie thinks it'd be safer if we walked in a group of four if something really happens."

"It's literally down the hall," Noah argued, "Can't you guys just go on your own? Three's company but four's a crowd."

"Right!" Katie agreed, "So let's just-"

"Come on, Noah, please?" Sadie asked, "It'll be five minutes, I promise!"

Noah rolled his eyes, "If it'll end this conversation quicker, sure. Why not?"

"Alright, then," Gwen spoke, slinging her bookbag over her shoulder, turning back to Katie and Sadie, "To my dorm we go. Trent'll probably go to Harold's dorm and I'm sure Duncan will be in whenever, so we'll have some time to set up."

"You're rooming with both of your exes?" Noah snickered, "Talk about bad luck."

"And from what I hear you're rooming with your family member and his ex," Gwen shot back with a smirk, "So, you're one to talk."

"...Touche."

"Yo, Gwen!" A certain brunette tech geek went running up to the four before adding, "Hey, Katie and Sadie!"

"No hello for me?" Noah feigned hurt.

"Number one, we already saw each other today- please don't say anything about that," Cody quickly added.

Gwen and Sadie promptly closed their mouths.

"And number two, I'm kinda in a hurry," he rubbed the side of his left arm, "Sierra didn't sneak in class, did she? I didn't see her come in."

"No," Katie shook her head, "Chris was, like, the last to come in."

"Why?" Gwen asked, arching an eyebrow.

"I dunno, I just-"

"He's dating her," Noah spoke, flatly.

"Noah!"

"I cannot tell a lie," was the bookworm's retort, obviously a lie within itself.

"Wait, you two are _dating_?" Gwen asked, eyes widening in surprise. This seemed to amuse Cody a little bit.

"Jealous- Ow!" Cody was cut off by Gwen stomping hardly on his foot.

"Come on, you guys," she ordered, "Let's drop Noah off at his dorm room." She walked off with Katie tailing behind her. Sadie stopped for a minute and shook her head.

"You, like, have a girlfriend. That's not cool."

As Sadie ran off to join Gwen and Katie, Noah stared at Cody for a moment. He seemed to be in a lot of pain, and seemed to regret what he said. Regardless, he decided to just leave him be and try to catch up with the other three, asking, "Since when did I become luggage to be dropped off?"

"Since now," Sadie sincerely replied when they exited the classroom and into the hall, as Noah finally caught up with them, "Oh, say! I have a question!"

"I probably have an answer," the sarcastic male replied dryly.

"Do you think Katie's cute?"

"Sadie!" Katie turned to face her best friend, glaring her down.

"...Where did _that_ come from?" Noah asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah, I have that question too," Gwen added.

"Well, you're Justin's anti-me, right?" Sadie explained, "Well, if so, then if you think Katie's pretty then obviously courting Justin wouldn't be, like, a smart thing to do, right? But if you don't, then that means Justin totally does!"

"Yeah, exactly!" Katie swiftly agreed with a nod.

Silence fell over the four before Gwen finally said what was on both her and Noah's minds:

"That literally made no sense whatsoever."

"Besides," a new voice joined the group, "I'm pretty sure Noah's asexual."

Noah gave a shrug at Dave's conjecture, "Yeah, that sounds about right."

"You're Dave, right?" Gwen asked, before snickering, "I see your hair grew back alright."

Dave frowned, "I... Really don't wanna talk about that."

"Then we'll talk about something else," Noah changed the subject, "You're coming back to our dorm room tonight, right?"

"Uh, no, uh, I believe it's unsanitary!" Dave lied, wringing his hands a little bit. It was obvious he was as uncomfortable about their living arrangement as Sky was, albeit a little less ready to negotiate with the other than her.

"Dude," his cousin deadpanned, "You're _you. _I don't think any room you enter can be considered unsanitary. ...Uh, no offense."_  
_

Before Dave could answer, yet another new voice exclaimed, "Well, then have I got the dirt for you! Gossip broker Topher McWayne is on the case!"

"Oh, great," Gwen rolled her eyes, "The Chris Wannabe."

"Yeah," Sadie replied, before gazing at the brunette, "The totally hunky Chris Wannabe!"

"That's right, I am," he flashed a smile at the group before growing serious, "No, this is serious. Uh. I talked to some of the policemen about the accident."

Katie arched a brow and put her hands on her hips, "That's like the opposite of what we were supposed to do!"

"Yeah, yeah," he waved it off, "But this is some pretty messed up gossip if it's real."

"Messed up?" Dave asked, "How messed up?"

Topher paused for what seemed to be dramatic effect, "I'll tell you... For five dollars each."

"How about you tell us for free if it's so damn serious?" Gwen wasn't putting up with anything like that. She shot Topher a death glare, which Dave quickly joined in on.

Topher chuckled nervously before clearing his throat, "The cop told me the 'incident' was actually a homicide."

A deadly silence fell over the group. Topher didn't seem to be lying. In fact, he seemed to be stone cold serious. Noah's mind went into overdrive. This was exactly like what Scarlett and Dawn had said. Part of him was hoping, however, that Topher was pulling their legs or something.

"Th-that's not something to joke about!" Katie broke the silence, shaking her head.

Sadie nodded, "Seriously! That's not funny!"

"I'm not joking!" Topher exclaimed, "They said that they found a contestant hanging upside down from a nearby roof's cable antenna! They also stopped a couple of people they thought could be involved like Shawn, Samey-"

At the word Shawn, Dave froze and his eyes widened. Samey, or Sammy as she preferred to be called, being placed right after his definitely didn't seem to be a good thing. Without saying a word, he ran off down the hall to find Shawn.

"Wait!" Noah called out to his cousin, but to no avail. He was already out of earshot. Once again, the cold silence fell over the group. Rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, Topher backed away, deciding to hit the exit button to this conversation due to how morbid the subject matter actually was if it was true.

"...Let's not do our vlog today," Katie pursed her lips, "I kinda just want to go to our room, Sadie."

Sadie nodded to her best friend before turning to Gwen, "Is... That okay with you?"

"...Yeah, that sounds like it's for the best," the goth agreed before turning to Noah, "You think Dave will be okay?"

"We don't even know if Topher was telling the truth or not," despite his words, Noah's voice wavered a bit, "...But I'll keep an eye on him. He'll probably come back to our room sooner or later."

Without much of another word, the four dispersed, going their own way. As Noah made his walk back to his, Dave's and Sky's room, he just could tell things were about to get a lot worse from here on out.

* * *

"...You seem pale again." Sky and Noah were sitting in the conjoined dorm room's lumpy couch. Unlike most of the time Noah was around others, his smart mouth wasn't running. Instead, he was quiet and distant.

"Huh?" he asked, before shaking his head, "No, no. Just anxious about that incident We heard about." Technically, that wasn't completely a lie.

"Oh," she nodded, "That makes sense, I guess."

"Say, why do you have a black and white TV?" Noah pointed to a miniature black and white television set, sitting on a makeshift coffee table in front of the couch. It was currently on the news, and when Noah came in, he noticed that Sky was watching it intently.

"My family bought it back in the nineties when we'd stay at an old Cree reservation up north to visit family," she explained, "It really only gets the news, but that okay! I really like the news, I guess."

Remembering the rumor that Gwen, Katie and Sadie had talked about, he asked, "Does it only get the news? Or some channels higher up on the list too?"

"Just the news,' she clarified, "But it does go up to like seven hundred channels or so. They just don't show anything. Why?"

"Just curious," Noah lied. Sky arched an eyebrow at him for a moment before shrugging and pushing it to the back of her mind. It was then that the current news story caused them both to focus on the miniscule television.

"Our top story tonight concerns a bizarre case in the area of Muskoka, Ontario," the news anchor spoke, "Around nine AM, a sophomore student from Heavenly Plane Academy was found dead in the surrounding vicinity."

Sky's expression turned extremely pale. She found herself secretly hoping it wasn't a contestant on the show, because there was only one person from her class who didn't show up. A mix of worry and nervousness began to course through her veins; something very foreign to her.

Noah, on the other hand, felt like he was close to vomiting. Someone from the school really turned up dead. Topher didn't lie after all.

Scarlett and Dawn didn't lie after all.

"The deceased has been identified as sixteen year old Jasmine Bergin, contestant from the world renowned reality show, Total Drama," the announcer gravely continued, "As previous reports have announced, this is the sixth case in the mysterious disappearances of Total Drama contestants. Sources believe that the other five are most likely deceased as well, but that is merely speculation."

"No," Sky breathed, "No, no, no. This can't be happening. We were going to hang out after classes were over. This... Can't be real."

The entire color had flushed from Sky's face as she stared straight ahead at the television. Noah, similarly, couldn't believe what he just heard. This meant that everything that had happened had lead up to this.

This meant that some creature had possessed one of the contestants, and most importantly and probably the thing that horrified Noah the most:

He was pretty much all but confirmed to be the Wild Card, just as Max, Scarlett, and Dawn said. He didn't even know what a Wild Card was. All he knew was, Max and Scarlett sure didn't give him any information and all that Dawn did was give him a warning to stay away from everything.

That was terrifying to him.

* * *

**And so, Jasmine was the victim, which was kind of a hard choice seeing as she's my favorite Pahkitew Island competitor. But as to why will be revealed in time**.

**Any preliminary thoughts on who the killer might be? It could be someone who's already showed up in the story, someone who hasn't showed up yet, or maybe even one of the missing contestants themselves! **

**Next time: Upon ending up in a conversation regarding the murder, Noah and three others end up trying out a rumor, which may end up being much more real than they think.**


	4. Rumor to Reality

**Act I: An Unusual Mystery**

**Chapter 4: Rumor to Reality**

* * *

**Thursday, September 4th, 2014**

* * *

When Noah awoke the next morning, he noticed two things. One was that Dave still wasn't back and the other was that Sky had left early in the morning. He was a little concerned for Dave, since there was most likely a killer running free. It didn't help that the news Noah had watched on Sky's tiny television had worried him even more.

"Sources have confirmed that the body of Jasmine Bergin was hung from the antenna upside down," he had heard a newscaster say, "The police have reason to believe that this was indeed a homicide and not an accidental death."

A killer could strike more than once. That was common sense. There wasn't a certain theme to the killings or disappearances. It could have been that the killers targeted the Pahkitew Island cast, but Courtney and Dawn, if this was truly the same case, didn't fit that at all. In fact, there wasn't even any confirmation that, aside from Max and Scarlett, that it even had any connection to Jasmine's murder. Even if it did, no one knew where Rodney was or if he was even still alive, and it seemed like only Noah and Owen had confirmation that Dawn and Courtney were alive respectively.

Noah snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of his cell phone ringing. He stared at the screen which indicated that Izzy was calling him. He accepted the call but wasn't even able to get a word out before he heard Izzy's voice.

"Noah, did you hear about that murder?!" her fast-talking voice exclaimed, "I always thought I'd be around if there was a murder amongst the group! That's so weird! Are you okay? Owen? Eva?"

"Settle down, Iz," Noah finally was able to reply, "We're fine, as far as I know. Everyone's kind of frazzled though."

"Good, good, good! So do you believe it was really a murder or what?! I gotta know!"

Noah frowned. He knew Izzy had a big interest in crime and murder mysteries, something she had told him, Eva, and Owen. But this really wasn't the time to be this interested in it, in his honest opinion.

"Yeah, it was," he confirmed, "I've heard that they're going to interrogate those of us who could be likely suspects."

"How weird would it be if you did or something?!" he heard Izzy's giddy voice through the tranceiver, "Because that'd be really weird, wouldn't it?"

"I don't think killing's in my blood, or you would have been first on my list," Noah deadpanned, before asking, "Before I decide to hang up on you, I've got to ask, shouldn't you be more concerned about this than you are?"

Silence came from the other end of the phone. Noah thought for a moment that she had hung up on him. She finally was able to reply with:

"When you're hunted by the RCMP, sometimes things don't surprise you anymore." Her voice was the most somber he had ever heard her voice be. She wasn't one to talk very often about being hunted by the RCMP ever since she was chased off the island by them back in season one. Owen had wanted to bring that up in the past but Noah and Eva had told him that it's Izzy's business and if she wanted to talk about it, she probably would.

"...Sorry," he finally breathed out, awkwardly.

To his surprise, her giddy and fast tone had quickly returned, "Oh, don't worry about it! You know me! I've been everywhere, man, and I've seen it all and done it all! Just don't die, okay? Same for Big O and Eva! Got it?"

In a way, Noah knew this was Izzy's way of showing she cared, "Only the good die young, you know. So Eva and I'll be fine and we'll keep an eye out for Owen."

"Haha!" Izzy cackled, "You better! Alright, then, I've got to go shoot a scene! A chase scene to be exact! I'll talk to you later, shortstuff!"

"Don't call me-" Noah was cut off by Izzy hanging up. He stared at the time on his smartphone.

Might as well get ready to go to class.

* * *

"Noah! Wait up, eh?!"

Noah turned on his heels to see none other than Ezekiel running towards him, out of breath. He hadn't talked much to Ezekiel, but being the first two males eliminated from season one, they usually were forced to be filmed together for season openings.

"Where's the fire, Homeschool?" Noah asked as the two stood in the middle of the hall.

"That Dave guy's your cousin, right?" the toque wearing boy asked, raising a finger to accentuate his point.

"Yeah," he shrugged, "Why?"

"Well, he's trying to say that Shawn didn't do it, eh," Ezekiel elaborated, "That it doesn't make sense that their blaming him."

"They were fighting the other night," Noah remembered, "But isn't that just how relationships work? You fight, you break up, you kiss, you make up?"

"Oh, isn't that a Katy Perry song?"

Noah arched an eyebrow. "Firstly and unfortunately, yes. Secondly, I thought you were sheltered to hell and back. How do you know any songs from pop culture? Better yet, how come you're not Night of the Living Freak anymore?"

"To be honest," Ezekiel scratched the back of his neck, "Chris paid me to wear a lot of horror make up and make things bad for everyone else."

Noah didn't seem too surprised. It made more sense than Ezekiel being an actual monster. Part of him even hoped that this whole situation was nothing more than some elaborate prank from McLean.

"Why aren't you surprised, eh?"

"Because zombies don't exist," Noah cynically replied, "You still didn't answer my question about pop culture."

"Oh, right!" Ezekiel exclaimed with a grin, "I've been looking up what all the cool kids these days like! You know, the culture of the punks, the popular kids, the musical crowd, the Bronies-"

"I'm pressing the eject button from this conversation now," Noah interrupted, "Just... Why did you tell me about Dave? He's a big kid. He can take care of himself."

Ezekiel drummed his fingers together awkwardly before explaining, "Because he's _really _fightingfor Shawn's case, yo! So the police aren't letting him leave until he calms down or a teacher or family member picks him up, eh!"

Of course.

* * *

Dave and Shawn sat in one of the faculty offices while the principal and one of the officers spoke in another room. Neither boy said anything to each other to begin with until Shawn finally spoke up.

"Thanks for taking up for me, man."

"You're the closest person here that I have to a best friend," Dave gave a sheepish smile, a little taken back himself by some of the things he had said in Shawn's defense, "Of course I'd give you the benefit of a doubt. I mean, you didn't really kill Jasmine, right...?"

"Of course not!" Shawn exclaimed, frowning, "I love Jasmine! It... It really hurts that she's gone, you know?" He had been able to stay calm up until then. The pain felt numb for the most part, but the cracks were really starting to show through.

"I know that, I just," Dave frowned, "I've seen how dangerous being part of this series is, but I never thought one of us would actually die, you know? It's... Unreal."

Shawn looked down at the floor, shaking his head, "I just can't believe it. I can't believe she's gone. She was the first person who accepted me for my pre-planning for the zombie apocalypse. She was the first person to see me for me. She was amazing and now she's gone."

Dave reached over and tentatively placed a hand on Shawn's shoulder, as the zombie enthusiast honestly looked like he was about to break out into tears. Normally, he would have said something about if someone had taken a shower before he touched them, but this was a different example. This wasn't about himself for once. This was about Shawn and Jasmine.

The door opened to the room again. This time, the police officer, the principal, and Dave's cousin Noah walked in the room.

"Dave, you're free to head to class," the grey-haired principal explained, "I'll let you off with a warning this time for your vocal outbursts. But if I see them again, I'll have to punish you."

"I'm sorry, Principal Schwarz," Dave apologized, rubbing his arm before asking, "You're not going to take Shawn away, are you?"

The police officer shook her head, "We have no evidence to believe that he killed Miss Bergin. Mr. Bennett, you may go to class as well, but we'll be asking for you to go to grief counseling for the next couple of weeks here, as well as a possible psychiatric visit to make sure we're positive about your innocence and to take care of your paranoia. Is that understood?"

Shawn nodded, "Yeah. Yeah, yes ma'am."

"But he didn't do-"

"Dave, let's go," Noah interrupted his younger cousin, "You're going to be late to class."

Dave opened and closed his mouth, before simply nodding. He knew he had no choice but to take this before he got detention or suspended from the academy.

* * *

Noah and Dave's walk back towards the classrooms was tense. Every once in no while, the cousins would look at the other trying to figure out what was going through their head.

"Thanks, man," Dave uttered.

Noah shook his head, "You're family, I guess. I didn't do anything for you except for what I should have."

"No, but," Dave began, "I always thought you didn't like me that well. You know, even though we're family and all."

Noah stopped and arched an eyebrow at his cousin. It was then that it hit him. For the past few years, he had been really bitter towards his family for not having pride in him. This even extended to Noah's extended family, which meant it extended towards Dave as well. In all honesty, Dave had done nothing to Noah but his grudge against his family pretty much had thrown Dave under the bus.

Talk about feeling like a jackass.

"I'm sorry," Noah uttered an apology, "As far as I know, you've done nothing to me, yet I've always kind of given you the bad end of the stick. Just because I'm pissed at my dad and siblings doesn't mean I should be a jackass to you."

"Well, you not being a jackass wouldn't be normal, right?" Dave asked, before catching what he said, "I mean, no! That's not what I meant! You're not a-"

"I know I am," Noah laughed an almost hollow laugh, "You sure don't know how to sugarcoat the truth, do you?"

Dave rubbed his arm and gave his cousin a sheepish grin, "If it helps, you're not the only one. I shouldn't have argued with Sky in front of you, you know?"

"Oh, that's right, I was going to ask you about coming back to our dorm," Noah remembered, before quickly adding when he saw a frown cross Dave's face, "Look. The three of us are roommates. If we're going to be sane by the end of this year, don't you think we should try to act like civil human beings? Plus, these are a Sky's words, not mine."

Dave's eyes widened in surprise, "Sky wants us to get along?"

"Or at least act older than four," he snarked, "Look, I know you guys have some bad blood, but she's right. Holding grudges against each other without trying to let bygones be bygones is going to turn you into me. And trust me, you already can be a sarcastic asshole when you need to, you don't need the whole treatment."

It was then that weird pain of sorrow seemed to hit Noah's heart. What if he was truly the Wild Card that was going to change how this whole killer situation came about? He wasn't a good person by any means and wasn't good enough to become such a pivotal role in his opinion.

Doing what Dawn said and not having any role in the incoming storm was looking like a good idea right about then.

"I'll come back to our dorm room this evening," Dave snapped Noah out of his thoughts, "I wanna make sure that Shawn will be alright first."

Noah nodded before asking the million dollar question, "Do you really believe Shawn is innocent in all of this?"

Without missing a beat, Dave replied with as much conviction as he could muster:

"One-hundred percent sure."

* * *

Classes went by without a hitch. Sure, Chris tried to play to the cameras in homeroom by bringing up Jasmine at every chance he could. Surprisingly and pleasantly, however, the other teachers made sure to honor her death by not mentioning it at all.

As Noah packed up his books to head back to the homeroom, he was tapped on the shoulder by a certain computer geek.

"Yo, Noah," Cody greeted, "Getting used to this place, yet?"

"A school I never asked to go to, Chris McLean as my teacher, and having to play Dr. Phil for my cousin and his first love," the bookworm sarcastically muttered, rolling his eyes, "Oh boy, this place is like Heaven!"

"I never thought I could get stabbed by sarcasm," Cody teased with a laugh, before asking, "Say, uh... Sierra and I were thinking of going somewhere off-campus to talk about, you know what." He looked back at one of the cameras nearby.

"And you're telling me this because...?"

"You're not curious?" Cody tilted his head slightly, "I mean, murders don't just happen every day!"

"I'm rarely curious," he scoffed, before contradicting that, "However, I'm pretty sure that you and Miss Stalkerlicious could use a voice of reason if you're thinking of talking about something that serious."

"I knew you were curious!" Cody exclaimed, grinning his gap-toothed grin at the other geek.

"I'm curious too," a familiar voice added, "Mind if I come with?"

"Gwen?" Cody asked, "Of course you can come with, but why are you curious?"

Noah scoffed, "For someone who used to have a crush on her, you sure don't know much about her, huh?" He noticed Cody's expressions change with the words "used to have a crush" but didn't say anything about it, not thinking of it as any of his business.

"Incidents like this have always been interesting to me," Gwen confirmed with a nod, "I mean, hello? I'm a horror movie fanatic, remember?"

"Right, right," Cody replied, "Then it's settled! We'll meet Sierra at one of the places around town!"

"Where did you have in mind?" Noah asked, slinging his book bag over his shoulder.

"A teenager's favorite place, of course!"

* * *

When Noah thought of a teenager's favorite place, his first thought was the library, but then again that was just him. When Gwen thought of a teenager's favorite place, she thought the graveyard, but again that was just her.

"You brought us to the mall food court?" Gwen asked, a disgruntled look on her face. Muskoka Plaza was apparently the closest thing to a mall in town, other than assorted outlet shops downtown. Sure, this meant they all got to pick up drinks and it was a place away from cameras, but it still wasn't on neither the goth nor the bookworm's top places to go.

Cody shrugged, "Hey, it works, doesn't it? I mean, it's pretty rad here and Sierra and I've been thinking of getting part time jobs, here."

"In a place you're only going to be at for a year?" Gwen asked, "I'll pass. What about you, Noah?"

"School's usually easy," Noah replied with a shrug, "I might as well try to find something to waste my afternoons with."

A louder voice caused the three to look up as the newcomer sat down, setting a laptop and a bottled water in front of herself, "Sorry I'm late, everyone! Codykins texted me to come to the place teenagers loved and I thought he meant a cyber cafe." She planted a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek before giving an awkward glance towards Gwen.

Gwen and Noah shot Cody glances that read, "We told you so." Cody tried to ignore it and shrugged saying, "Well, we're all here now, right?"

"Spending my afternoon where I could be doing homework talking about a murder with three people I'm not exactly close to," Noah deadpanned, "Be lucky I was curious."

"Speaking of curiosity," Sierra cut in, turning towards Noah, "When are you going to tell me about that year you interned for Chris-"

"Never."

"Oh, come on!" the uber fan whined, "I need it for my blog!"

"You know," Gwen interrupted, "I didn't come here to hear smartass comments and whining. I'm here because I'm curious about all the disappearances."

"Well, the one who'd know the most gossip would be Sierra," Cody reassured, "What'cha got, Sierra Mist?"

"Gag me with a spoon," Noah winced at that awful pet name. Gwen gave a snicker, having to agree with that sentiment.

"First off, my sources indicate that Dawn and Courtney are most likely still around," Sierra explained, "I had to skip class today so-"

"Wait, back up," Gwen interrupted, "I thought I didn't see you in class. Where were you?"

The features on Sierra's face wrinkled for a moment, "Uh, I had to go to the principal's office to be interviewed."

Noah arched an eyebrow. Something about that made no sense. "Interviewed? You mean about the murder?"

"You didn't?" Sierra asked with a dismissive shrug.

"Er, no?" Cody asked, confused, "Only those of us who was connected to her was going to be interviewed...?"

"Oh," Sierra mused for a second, "I met her once. I got some keen information about her relationship with Shawn. Totally one of my OTPs behind me and Codykins!"

"Please never say the word OTP again," Noah snarked, taking a sip of his soda.

"Sierra?"

The four turned to a new face, none other than Cameron Wilkins. He quickly added, "Hey, Gwen!"

"Hey, Cam," she greeted her unlikely friend, "What's up?"

"Oh nothing, I just got off the phone with my mom," Cameron laughed a bit, nervously, "When she heard about the murder, she pretty much wanted to get me back home and seal me into my bubble."

"Yeowch," the goth sympathized, "Talk about 'My Bsolved Smother.'"

"I never thought the crazy chick who pretended you were Cody would be the first one you'd greet," Noah shot off. Cody and Sierra gave the know-it-all a glare, which he didn't seem to care about either way.

"Well, uh, I'm gonna be her tutor," Cameron replied, "We were supposed to go study math tonight."

"Oh, that's right!" Sierra exclaimed, "I completely forgot! I'm sorry Codykins, but I kinda planned this first. Is that okay?"

"I'm not really sure why you didn't ask me, to be honest," he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well, just being with you is enough, you know?" Sierra asked, with a giggle.

"Okay," Gwen turned towards Noah, "Now you can gag _me _with a spoon."

"You coming, Sierra?" the bubble boy asked.

"Coming, Cammy-kins- Cameron!" she corrected herself before giving Cody another kiss, "Talk to you later?"

"Sure," he nodded, "Later!"

"We'll have to hang sometime, Gwen," Cameron suggested as he and Sierra made their way off. Gwen just nodded and waved him off.

Once they were out of earshot, Noah asked Cody, "Don't you have a problem with her using that nickname on him like that?"

"It was probably just a slip of the tongue," Cody shook his head.

"Or a slip of _the _tongue, if you know what I mean-" an exasperated look from Gwen caused him to realize what he had said. He probably wouldn't have made that joke if he thought about it, especially with all of the shaming Gwen had received in World Tour for the whole Duncan fiasco.

"Uh, that was rude even for me-"

Gwen interrupted Noah's awkward apology with an annoyed sigh, "Let's just change the subject, alright? Say, have you guys heard of the Midnight Channel?"

"The Midnight Channel?" Cody asked, "Isn't that a porn cha-"

"Okay, ew, too much information; I don't want to know how you'd know information like that," she grimaced, "No, it's a rumor. They say if you go to Channel 666 at midnight on a rainy night and look into the screen alone, you'll see a figure that's supposed to be your soul mate."

"I never would have guessed that you would have believed something like that," Noah held back a snicker.

"That sure is a good way to apologize," Gwen frowned, shutting the cynic up before she continued, "Okay, then. How about you put your money where your mouth is? I heard it was going to rain tonight. The three of us should try it tonight."

"Wait, why me?!" Cody asked, bewildered.

"Wouldn't it be Sierra anyway?" Gwen countered, " Of course, if you two are chicken..."

"Sky has a TV in our room, so why not?" Noah conceded with a shrug.

"I think I have a program on my laptop that can hook up to channels if I do some fiddling," Cody mused.

"And I've got an app on my phone that should work," Gwen seemed satisfied, "We'll see if it's real or not."

This was going to end up to be a terrible idea.

* * *

"You don't actually believe that, do you?" Sky laughed when Noah returned to the dorm room.

"Of course not," he dissuaded, looking up from his textbook as they sat on the couch, "Why would I?"

"Superstitious, maybe?" she offered.

"Oh, don't worry," he sarcastically replied, "I carry around my lucky rabbit foot to counteract that."

It was then that the door to the room opened, silencing the two. They stared at their roommate, who stared right back.

"So, uh, Sky," was the first thing out of his mouth.

"Uh, hey, Dave," she replied back, a little bit awkwardly.

"Uh, I don't know how to say this," he gingerly spoke, "But, uh, I'm really sorry about being a nuisance. You know. Everything that happened on the show."

"No, I should have told you," she countered, "That was something really important to let you know about."

"But you told me to begin with to chill about it," Dave shook his head, "I fucked up."

"Okay, number one, I have never heard you curse a day of your life," Noah seemed bewildered at Dave's language, "And two, stop throwing a pity party and just say you'll try to be friends again."

Dave covered his mouth momentarily before turning to Sky, "Err... Do you wanna try to be friends again?"

"We're going to live together, aren't we?" she asked, trying to lighten up the mood, "We might as well be friends."

"I'd get on this couch before she changes her mind," Noah teased, flipping a page in his textbook and scribbling something down.

A grin flashed across Dave's face as he sat down on the couch, "So, uh, how was school for you guys?"

"I got into the school's soccer team!" Sky exclaimed in excitement, "And trust me, I'm ready to kick ass. You?"

"Just schoolwork and seeing if Shawn was okay," Dave nodded,"But I'm glad you got in, Sky."

"What's this?" Noah snickered, "I actually may go to bed without a migraine- Ow!" He was silenced by a nudge from Sky.

"...To be honest, someone probably should have been on 'Shut you up' duty for a while, cuz," Dave admitted, with a small laugh.

For everything that was going wrong this week, despite the pain in his ribs, it was nice to see something go right for once.

* * *

Eventually, Dave and Sky went to their respective bedrooms; but not without poking fun at Noah's attempt of trying out the rumor Gwen had heard about. Part of Noah wanted to prove that the rumor was false.

Yet part of him felt that he wouldn't be too surprised if it ended up being true. Everything else that was starting to seem to be true was beginning to change his views on what was real and what wasn't in life.

There was one thing that was an absolute surprise to Noah. Waiting for midnight, he sat up and watched the news. One thing the newscasters said changed everything about the mystery that he thought he knew.

"_One of the students of Heavenly Plane Academy discovered the body of Jasmine Bergin and reported it to police," _Noah had heard on the news, "_We were lucky enough to get an interview and to censor said person for tonight's update."  
_

There was no guessing who the censored witness was. It was obvious. Beyond obvious.

It was Sierra.

It explained why she wasn't at the school either day. She discovered the body and was questioned about it afterwards. He wasn't sure if this made her the most innocent person in the group or the number one suspect.

He turned off the television sometime later and glanced at his phone. 11:59 PM. The sound of rain pattered outside, just as Gwen had said. He turned to face the miniature television, staring at it just to see if he could rest easy.

Midnight.

Not one thing appeared on the screen. Noah blew some air out from his nostrils. Of course it wasn't true. He must have been just going crazy. He turned to go back towards his room when suddenly a vibrant picture began to flash on the screen.

He stopped and turned back to look. What seemed to be a girl writhing in pain on the screen was seen. As if she was slowly but surely being poisoned.

**"I am thou."**

A loud voice resounded in Noah's head. He gripped his head in pain as it boomed. It was raspy, as if it was a personification of death itself. The voice was terrifying, yet at the same time, somehow calming.

**"Thou art me. I represent the power yet untapped from your body, but also the demons that you have yet to face. Your time as the Wild Card is just beginning. For your own sake, I hope you earn the right to command me in battle. I'm the only one who stands between your future and your death."**

It was then that the voice ceased. At the same time, Noah's headache ceased. The television returned to normal, back to the blank Channel 666.

Something told Noah to do it. To walk up to the television and touch the tiny monitor. His mind screamed no, but his legs seemed to scream yes. As he stumbled forward, he felt his hand outreach to the screen, finally touching it.

It wasn't solid. It felt like liquid. His hand could barely fit on the screen, yet here it was pushing into the now liquefied screen. A hand seemed to grab his arm inside the screen and tried to pull him inside.

"What-what the hell- Aah!"

He was pulled forward, almost landing face first on the television which would have earned him a concussion. He tried his best to pull backwards, trying to save himself from being pulled inside. It was then that the hand let go, sending Noah tumbling backwards and hitting his head on the edge of the couch.

"Noah, is that you?!" he heard Dave's voice from their shared room.

"Are you okay?!" he heard Sky add to it from her room.

"I... Yeah, I just stumbled," Noah wasn't sure why he lied, "G-go back to sleep." Maybe because he was scared beyond his wits, but either way, it just came out

"If you say so," Sky didn't seem all that sure in the least. Dave had the door opened to his and Noah's room and was staring at Noah in confusion.

"Are you sure you're alright?" his cousin asked in concern.

All Noah could muster was a nod of his head. He stood up and made his way back to his and Dave's room.

if this didn't confirm that everything he had witnessed was real, he wasn't sure what would.

* * *

**The supernatural stuff has finally come into play, as the real part of Persona is beginning to enter our plot. Noah's finally believing that he's the Wild Card, while the mystery has a few new kinks being added to it. Our introduction is finally starting to come to a close as the real adventure is about to kick in.**

**Next time: Cody and Gwen don't quite believe what Noah has experienced, but sometimes, seeing is believing.**


	5. Awakening

**Act I: An Unusual Mystery**

**Chapter Five: Awakening**

* * *

**Friday, September 5th, 2014**

* * *

Noah didn't sleep at all that night and was the first to leave the dorm. To be honest, he just couldn't wait for this week to be over. Too much had happened and there was very little time to process it all. It had gone from weird dreams to a murder to almost being sucked in a television.

The last one was something Noah never thought he'd be a part of.

As he walked down the hall, an argument caused him to stop and turn his head. He wasn't the only one. Eva, who was standing nearby, turned her head as well.

"You're not helping!" Katie shouted at Sadie, "Just stop trying to help! All you do is make things worse!"

"What?!" Sadie was in shock, "All I'm doing is trying to help you out!"

"You don't know how to sew, which isn't helping me out because you're making a mess of my work," Katie counted on her fingers, "You and Gwen never include me in anything has to do with the vlogs, which doesn't help me because I _want _to be part of the planning process. And you don't listen when I ask for you to keep a secret, which is _directly _against what could help me out!"

Sadie turned to her best friend, looking genuinely hurt, "That... That's not true!"

It was from there that the argument escalated. Eva walked over to Noah, holding her hands over her ears and complained, "I'm not sure if I hate their squealing or their squabbling worse."

"Tell me about it," the bookworm replied, having to admit that it was giving him a headache, something he felt that he was becoming more susceptible to by the day while living at the academy, "I thought they were supposed to be best friends?"

"Sometimes even the closest can break apart?" Eva surmised with a questioned shrug.

"How profound of you," was Noah's half-sarcastic, half-surprised retort. He was silenced by a playful smack to the arm, which he exclaimed in annoyance, "Hey! What's with you jock types and smacking me in the arm?!"

"Another one's doing it?" Eva snorted, "Like you don't deserve it though."

"Number one, yeah, Sky's picked it up," Noah explained calmly before taking offense, "And second, I'm not _that _bad of a person, am I?"

"Not bad," she shook her head, "Just a loudmouth with asshole tendencies who doesn't know how to shut the hell up a majority of the time."

Noah paused, not really knowing what to say to that. He finally was able to utter an annoyed, "Touche." Eva just smirked in satisfaction. While they were very close, the two of them were known to pick apart each other's faults, which wasn't hard, both of them had to admit. Noah was a smartass who said things that annoyed or even hurt others without really thinking about the consequences of his words. Eva was a bruiser with a bad temper and very small self-control to reign it in. In Eva's defense, however, she at least had enrolled in anger management classes to try and reign in her fatal flaw. Noah, however, had a long way to go before his fatal flaw was much less fatal and much more curable.

The two were snapped out of their conversation by the sound of a slap impacting someone's face. They, and several other students passing by, turned their heads over to the source of the slap. Sadie held her cheek, fighting back tears, while Katie was lowering her hand, panting heavily in anger. A few seconds passed, which felt like an eternity to everyone involved. Katie finally widened her eyes and noticed what she did.

"Sadie, oh my God, I'm so so-"

"Just shut up!" Sadie exploded in a mess of anger and tears, "You... You didn't have to hit me! I didn't do anything _to _you! All I was doing was trying to help!"

"Look," Katie was trying to compose her bearings, "I just lost my temper and-"

"Yeah!" Sadie interrupted her with a brisk nod, "You did! I thought we were supposed to be best friends!"

Now Katie's emotions were beginning to get control of _her_, "We _are_, aren't we?! At least I think we are! I mean, we always make up-"

"But we never actually slapped the shit out of each other!" Katie was shocked by the profanity Sadie used. She never had heard Sadie ever use a curse word once in her entire life. It was jarring, to say the least. She was in shock from Sadie's curse. She was in shock that this had caused this much of a ruckus.

But ultimately, she was in shock because she actually had slapped her best friend in the entire world.

"You know what?" Sadie finally remarked, "I don't care anymore, okay? We have to live in the same dorm, but you don't even have to, like, talk to me. Actually, I'd _prefer _it! Okay?" Without even letting Katie answer, she stomped down the hall to get away from her, now supposedly ex-best friend.

"Fine!" Katie immaturely called out to the other, similarly dressed girl. She looked down at the ground momentarily before turning towards Eva and Noah who were still staring directly at her. She turned her gaze back towards the ground before walking off in another direction from Sadie.

"...Well, that happened," Noah commented when all of the commotion finally died down.

"I'm honestly surprised this hasn't happened before now," Eva added, "I mean, the two fight almost every season. Probably even more then everyone else thinks."

She was right, there. Noah remembered watching the two fight from Playa des Losers during the first season's camping challenge. He had heard the two had fought over Justin during the race for the million dollar suitcase before the second season's challenge. He was a firsthand witness to the two fighting over Trent sometime after his elimination in London during World Tour. During the group's stay at Playa des Losers during Revenge of the Island, they argued over who was doing the most work with Gwen on the vlogs. During All Stars, when the Island sunk, the reaction caused Playa des Losers to sink as well, causing the two to argue about how to get to shore.

He assumed this would count as the post-Pahkitew Island argument.

It was then that the bell rung and Noah was patted on the back by none other than Eva as she said, "We should hang sometime later."

"Might as well, Iron Woman," Noah shrugged, "Wanna meet up somewhere on Sunday?"

She nodded, "Sure, pipsqueak. That'll work fine. Meet me outside of the main building. Be there or be square, much like your noggin."

"Oh, I haven't heard that one before," he scoffed with a roll of his eyes.

Part of him was anxious to get to class. The quicker he got his classes done, the quicker he could explain what had happened to Gwen and Cody. Maybe he finally wouldn't have to shoulder the burden of the so-called "impending storm" alone. It was either that, or do what Dawn had said and escape from it.

With the feeling that things would only get worse from this point forward, that latter thought sure was looking quite tempting.

* * *

Classes went off without a hitch. As Noah was packing up for the day, he was interrupted by what seemed to be a tapping on his desk. He looked over to see none other than Cody, one of the ones he was hoping would come up to him. He wasn't used to actually being glad to see company, but with what had happened that night, this was a completely different situation that made Noah have to adapt to it.

"So, did you watch the Midnight Channel?" Cody seemed nervous for some reason. Maybe he had seen, heard, and experienced what Noah had.

"Yeah," Noah nodded, but let Cody take the lead of the conversation, "Did you see your 'soulmate?'" He put quotation marks around the word soulmate.

Gwen, who was walking over to the two boys, joined in, "Yeah. How'd it go?"

Cody rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, I definitely saw a girl, that's for sure."

"Really?" the goth asked in surprise, "I did, too."

Cody's eyes widened, as Noah's eyebrow cocked slightly. Gwen quickly added, "...Haven't either of you seen a bisexual before?"

"Well, yeah," the tech geek replied, "But I didn't think you were one...?"

"Meh," Noah shrugged, "Doesn't shock me all that much. I'm pansexual myself, anyway."

"Fancy," Gwen teased, before asking, "No sarcastic comment about that?"

"Well, I would say it's unsurprising since your interest in Courtney could have quickly been written off as a romantic interest in her," the cynic explained.

"Annnd there it is," Gwen deadpanned, shaking her head.

"Dude, you'd date a girl?" Cody asked, in shock, "I always thought you were flat-out gay. What's this pan...something?"

"Upset that you no longer have special privileges?" Noah egged the geek on. He was quickly cut off by Cody shaking his head, "Uh, no, dude! I'm straight, dude!"

Gwen cocked an amused eyebrow at Cody, "I think he was mostly kidding."

"I was," a smirk crossed Noah's lips, "And pansexuality is an interest in any gender, be it someone born male or female or transitioning male or female." Cody raised a finger in question to this, which Noah quickly interrupted, "No more questions on my orientation or I'll get Tyler to get Lindsay to spread some nasty rumor about you."

Cody gave an annoyed look at the bookworm, but shut his mouth altogether. Noah wasn't really honest on actually following up on that, but it at least shut him up for the time being.

"Back to the matter at hand, then," Cody decided to go back to the main situation, "The girl I saw seemed... in pain. Like she was writhing in pain. I guess _that's _what's so scary when it comes down to it, y'know?"

"Really?" Gwen seemed shocked, "I'm ninety-nine percent sure we saw the same girl then. But that makes no sense. That'd mean we both have the same soulmate."

"We might as well get the polyandry started, because I saw the same thing," Noah dryly stated, before adding, "Well. More happened than that."

Gwen and Cody shared bewildered looks before Cody demanded, "Don't leave us hanging, then!"

Noah inhaled, then exhaled, before beginning to explain the events of the previous night. He told them that he saw the same girl that they saw, which was surprising, but not overtly so. What made Gwen and Cody look at him like he had grown a horn on his head or something was the parts about hearing a mysterious voice and being almost sucked into the TV.

When he finished explaining, neither of them said a word, prompting Noah to ask, "Well?"

One second passed.

Two seconds passed.

Three seconds passed.

Gwen and Cody burst into laughter. Noah scowled. He should have known they wouldn't have believed him. It wasn't something easily believed, of course, but he at least wished they had the decency not to laugh in his face.

"That was a good one," Cody wiped a tear from his eyes, "You should be a comedian, bro!"

Gwen added, as she calmed down, "Especially the part where you couldn't fit because the TV was so small. Pretty realistic, I gotta admit."

"As much as I'd like to curse both of you out and leave you both standing here," Noah began, "have either of you begun to even realize that I'm serious as a heart attack?"

Cody and Gwen shared another bewildered look, before looking concernedly back to Noah. He knew those looks. Now they thought he was going crazy. To be honest, he wondered that himself with some of the events that had transpired, but this was just too realistic to pass up as insanity or coincidence.

"I think you dozed off while watching it," Gwen concluded with a nod.

Cody also nodded in agreement, "Yeah, man. That's like the only thing that makes sense here."

"If I could show you both, would you two stop?" Noah offered, raising an eyebrow at the two.

"Would you take therapy if you couldn't?" Gwen's voice was a mix of unbelief and concern, probably towards Noah's well-being.

"Deal."

"Okay, then, how's this," Cody spoke slowly, "Let's all meet up at the electronics department at the mall. They've got some screens that aren't from the 1990s for one. Plus, if Noah's right...somehow... then we'll have a way to see what's behind the whole Midnight Channel thing. Besides, Sierra said she'll be late hanging out with me today."

"Sounds good," the gothic artist agreed, "Just let me leave my books at the dorm and I'll meet you two there. Sound good?" Cody just nodded in response, before the two turned to Noah. He gave an uneasy nod to them in confirmation.

"Not going to ask Sierra to join us this time?" Gwen asked.

Cody shook his head as he got ready to go, "Not this time. She said she was busy again today."

That was fine in Noah's opinion. But there was one thing he did hope. He sure hoped that lightning would strike twice.

* * *

Cody tapped on the glass of one of the large televisions in the electronics department of the mall before revealing, "Nope! Solid as glass! Wanna give it a try, Gwen?"

"Why not?" Gwen asked with a shrug, before tapping her hand on the glass as well. Still nothing out of the ordinary. Both of them turned towards Noah with satisfied yet expectant looks. He turned towards the television and frowned. If this didn't work, it would prove that he was losing his mind. If it worked, it would prove his sanity to be in tact but would also mean that some messed up serious predicaments were about to go down.

He extended his hand out towards the television. Slowly, he placed his hand on the glass.

One second passed. Two. Three.

"Well, figures," Cody dismissed it with a shrug, "I guess you're really-"

"Uh, look again, Cody," Gwen interrupted him, eyes wide.

Noah's hand was going through the television. All three teenagers shared the same shocked look. Noah was telling the truth and wasn't crazy.

"Dude!" Cody exclaimed, "That's... What the hell's going on?! Is there anything else you want to tell us?"

Noah would have answered that, but the fact that it was more true than Noah wished to admit, he decided to stay quiet. This would be enough of one surprise for one day.

"Let's go in," Gwen spoke, decidedly, "Do you think you can keep those ripples moving if you keep your hand in it?"

"I don't think this is a really good idea," Cody tried to persuade the goth out of it, "This isn't normal!"

"Which is exactly why I'm interested," Gwen explained to the tech geek, "Aren't you two curious?"

"I don't even know if we can walk through it," Noah explained, but kept his hand on the television, "Nor do we know where it leads if it really is a portal of some kind."

Gwen turned back to notice that some employees were slowly making their rounds back to the electronics section, "Okay, if we're going to do this, we need to go ahead and try it now. Someone's coming, and I don't know about you guys, but there's something fishy about this and I wanna find out what."

"Isn't that uncharacteristic for you?" Noah asked. It definitely did seem so. While Gwen was one of the braver contestants on the show, she was usually one of the most sane too. Regardless, she ignored Noah and maneuvered around him, stepping through the television with relative ease. To Cody and Noah's worry, however, she gave a scream when she entered.

"Gwen!" That was all Cody had to hear to decide that he needed to run after her, entering the television and giving a scream as well.

Noah frowned. He really didn't want to do this. If that voice was right, this would be the step that would finally push him into accepting the role of the Wild Card. He wanted to ditch them right then and there, but a pain of guilt struck him. Inhaling and closing his eyes, he entered the television.

The last thing he saw was a hypnotizing swirl of light in his vision and the last thing he heard was his own screams.

* * *

He landed hard on his back, while Cody had landed hard on his butt and Gwen was already standing back up. The area around them had the same green fog they saw the day the police discovered Jasmine's body. The only thing they could make out through the fog was that wherever they were, it resembled a TV Studio.

"Isn't that the same fog from a few days ago?" Gwen asked, "Why would it be in a TV of all places?"

"Why would a studio be inside a TV?" Noah stood up and snarked, "Better yet, how is it possible that we entered a TV?"

"...True."

"Uh, guys?" Cody asked, "I don't mean to alarm you, but I really don't see where we came from, or a way back out."

Gwen scanned the area around the three, only noticing a door in the distance, before musing, "Well, we came in from above, right? I wouldn't think that door would be the exit."

"Well, we're screwed," Noah stated with a disappointed look. So this is how they were going to die. Trapped in some other dimension of sorts inside a television. Then again, Noah could think of worse ways to die.

"Dude, don't say that!" Cody scolded Noah, "There's gotta be a way out of here somewhere! Don't you guys think so?"

"And if there isn't?" Gwen brought up, pursing her lips.

"Then we really are screwed," Noah repeated, this time with much more conviction with that fact.

"I said don't say that!" The tech geek snapped at the bookworm, before asking, "Should we try that door?"

Gwen gave a nod, furrowing her brows, "It's worth a shot, right?"

"Yet we don't know where it leads," Noah complained, "Don't you think that's pretty dangerous?"

Gwen turned to Noah and said, "Look. Can you not argue everything we try for once? Or would you rather stay in this room that you know nothing about, alone, while Cody and I go ahead?"

He really couldn't argue with that logic.

* * *

The first thing Noah noticed about the door they went through was that it was the same door as the one from the fog-filled nightmare a few days back. The second thing he noticed was that he room was decorated almost morbidly. Guns, axes, knives, and hunting gear adorned the walls of the room. Also on the walls was a map of Australia, while a bloodstained purple bed sat in the middle of the room.

But that wasn't what drew their attention. What drew their attention the most was photographs scattered around the room.

They were all the same photo of Jasmine and Shawn, but with Jasmine's head cut out of every one of them.

"Is this a bedroom?" Gwen asked, as she stared around the room, "This... Obviously isn't normal."

A shiver ran up Cody's spine, as he replied, "Seriously. Come on, guys, this room doesn't have the exit."

Noah swallowed the heavy feeling building up in his throat before asking, "Hey. Do you think this is tied to the case?"

"It's too suspicious not to be," Gwen was the only calm one out of the three standing in the room, "Does that mean whatever killed Jasmine was a monster?"

"Guys, I don't think monsters ex-"

"We're in a TV, Cody," Gwen shook her head, "That doesn't sound too strange now, does it?" Cody frowned. She made a good point.

"...What if I said there's more to it than that?" Noah tentatively asked. The other two teenagers faced each other before facing Noah again.

This would require a bit of backtracking to explain the situation.

* * *

They left the room partially because of the smell of blood and partially because of the general feeling of malice permeating from the room. Noah explained to them all of the dreams he was having as they entered back into the studio section of the strange area.

"So, let me get this straight," Gwen recounted, "Max and Scarlett's alive but in some other dimension, and Dawn's alive but is hiding out in the woods near the school?"

"And this entire mystery is a murder conspiracy enacted from some apocalyptic force," Cody added, "And you're some wild card who'll help solve the mystery?"

Noah gave a shrug of dismissal, mostly to keep him from freaking out in the creepy, foggy atmosphere, "You don't have to believe me if you don't want to."

"Dude, like Gwen said," Cody changed his tune, "We're in who knows where! It's pretty easy to believe."

"Uh, guys?" Gwen asked before Noah could reply, pointing her slender pointer finger towards the fog, "I don't mean to make you two freak out, but I think we've got company."

To Noah's surprise, a tall, muscular figure stood in the fog. To even more surprise, when he stepped forward, all there teenagers recognized the figure as someone from the show.

"You're... Rodney?"

The orange-haired giant nodded in confirmation before saying, "You guys hafta get outta here- Woah." Rodney stopped, focusing all of his attention on Gwen, continuing with, "Uh, err, Rodney am I and-"

"Didn't you disappear?" Cody interrupted, partly out of confused curiosity, partly out of annoyance that in only two seconds, Rodney was focusing all of his attention on Gwen.

"Well, yeah, but," Rodney fumbled, "If you don't leave soon, the Shadows will attack!"

"Shadows?" Gwen repeated.

Rodney nodded once, "Yeah, they're-"

Rodney was cut off by the sound of what sounded like liquid. The four teenagers turned towards the sound of the noise to see two black puddles forming on the floor of the so-called studio. The puddles grew in density and shape, before finally jettisoning upward and forming two spherical mouths with sharp teeth and long tongues. Even more horrifyingly, these disembodied mouths were floating in midair.

"What-what _are _those things?!" Cody exclaimed in horror. Upon hearing Cody's shout, the creatures set their eyeless sights on the four and started moving towards them.

Rodney got between the monsters and the three teenagers, grabbing one of the snapping monsters by its jaws with his large hands, "I'll-Urgh-Protect you guys!"

It was then that the monster lashed its tongue out, flinging Rodney to the ground and into Cody with great force before turning their focus onto Gwen. They zoomed towards her, which she sidestepped away from. To her surprise however, the two monsters spun around and double teamed her by pushing her to the ground.

Noah was the only one standing, and it was clear that the monsters were wanting to pile them up to have a magnificent feast.

The loud voice from before resounded in Noah's head, this time not accompanied by a headache. It was then that his body froze up and a sharp burning sensation began to form on the back of his neck.

**"I am thou. Thou art I. Resound and rise to your role as the Wild Card. Summon me to your aid at once."**

"Noah, why are you just standing there?!" Gwen shouted, "You're going to get eaten!"

He knew that. Oh did he know that. But he didn't have a choice in the matter. His body was working against him. His head looked up by itself and his hand outstretched in front of him, as a blue card descending from the ceiling, landing in his hand."

"Per..."

Noah was unsure of what he was saying.

"So..."

The burning sensation was hurting worse by the second.

"...Na."

But it was filling him with unbelievable power. He clenched his fist around the card, shattering it as if it was glass. It was then that the feeling in his body returned to him, as his knees began to shake in fear, causing him to stumble forward.

Gwen, Cody, and Rodney watched in awe as paper began to swell above Noah. The rustling of the papers caused the downed bookworm to look up too. The papers swarmed together, forming what seemed to be a white knight made of paper. Noah might not have been religious, but he recognized what seemed to be the Star of David or some other pentagon or pentagram on the knight's forehead.

The knight turned towards Noah, speaking in a raspy voice, "So, you are the Wild Card, hm? It seems that I am your persona."

"My... Persona?"

The knight turned away from Noah and towards the mouths whole scoffing, "You really are the most inexperienced summoner I have been acquainted with. What a shame. I'll spare your life for now, but next time you summon me, be prepared to fight alongside me."

The knight, still floating in mid-air, floated forward with amazing speed. Winding up its paper-cloaked fist, it slammed the fist into one of the mouths, destroying it on impact. The other mouth licked its chops before extending its long tongue towards the knight, only to have the tongue grabbed at the last second. With a swift roundhouse kick, the knight sliced through the remaining monster, before tossing the disembodied tongue to the side.

All four teenagers were in awe, as the knight floated back over to Noah saying, "My name is Shiki-Ouji. Do not hold me back." The knight reverted to a blue card before floating over to Noah, entering his chest. Noah glowed with an intense blue light for several seconds before returning to normal.

Gwen shakily rose to her feet, asking, "Is everyone okay?"

Rodney rolled off of Cody and helped the shorter boy to his feet. The tech geek mumbled, "Yeah, I think so... Noah, what _was _that?!"

Noah sat there for a moment, still frazzled by what happened. His back felt heavier for some reason. Reaching around, he noticed something was on his person that normally wasn't there.

A sword.

He got to his feet and finally was able to speak, "I think... I think that was the power of the Wild Card."

"Summoning a demon to kill other demons?" Gwen guessed, "I mean, that's a pretty useful power, but does this mean this is all tied together to some supernatural force?"

Before Cody or Noah could give their two cents to that question, Rodney exclaimed, "Hey, you guys gotta get outta here before more come."

"Hold on, we still have questions-"

"No time!" Rodney exclaimed again before blushing and turning to Gwen, "Um, ma'am, you might wanna relax your body."

"What do you mean by tha**aaaaaaa-"**

Rodney had stomped his feet, somehow opening up holes under each of the three teenagers. The same dizzying sensation overtook them as they returned to the real world.

* * *

Thankfully, no one noticed the three of them falling out of a television. However, by now, all of them were getting tired of falling and getting tossed around. As they stood up, Noah noticed that the sword holstered to his back was gone.

"So, uh," Cody rubbed the back of his neck as he turned towards Noah, "Everything you said actually turned out to be true."

"Unfortunately," Noah frowned, "To be honest, I don't want to be out in this situation. I want to just quietly survive this next year and go to college. Not help solve some supernatural murder mumbo-jumbo."

"I think you should be glad you got put in this," Gwen mused, "I mean, if somebody doesn't stop whoever this force is and whoever the killer is, what if we all die?"

Cody stared at the television for a moment before giving Noah a slightly irritated look, before saying, "You get the chance to be special. To do something. And you're going to waste it?!"

"I don't want to be special," Noah argued, "I just want-"

"This is the best thing that could have happened to you and you want to waste it by just ignoring it?!"

"I'm not a Wild Card! I'm-"

"Both of you, shut up," Gwen interrupted them with a glare, "I'm not feeling well and you two are making it worse."

Cody turned towards Gwen before grasping his head for a second, "You know what? I kinda feel you. I feel kinda nauseous."

Noah didn't say a word, mostly because he was starting to feel nauseous himself, and was frustrated that despite everything, he was still thrust into this situation. Sure, he could run and hide, but Cody made a point. He was chosen to be the partner of that knight, Shiki-Ouji. It'd make him worse than he really was to just let it stand by.

And in a way, he understood what Cody meant by actually making something of himself. Sure, Noah was smart, but that was about all he had. He was scrawny, a jerk, and had no real ambitions outside of going to college and getting a degree in computer sciences.

This was his chance to actually make something of himself, but if Dawn was right, he wasn't even sure if he'd survive this ordeal if he decided to tackle the mystery.

"I'm going back to the academy," Gwen spoke, as she began to walk off, "If you guys are feeling as weird as I am, you probably should, too."

"Yeah," Cody agreed with a nod, "See you later, Gwen." He didn't bid farewell to Noah, leaving the bookworm in the middle of the electronics department to stew in his own thoughts.

Maybe going to bed and sleeping on it wouldn't be that bad of an idea, was his thought.

But while the three went back to their dorms to sleep, little did they know that the killer had decided to strike again.

* * *

**Persona Information Corner.**

* * *

**Persona Name: Shiki-Ouji**

**Owner: Noah Malakar**

**Tarot Arcana: The Fool**

**Mythology: Japanese Mythology**

**Element: Physical Persona**

**Weaknesses: The element of Wind.**

**Description: The Shikiouji (or Shiki-Ouji) is an exceptionally powerful type of Shikigami. A Shikigami is a demon that is usually only summoned by Japanese sorcerers to follow their bidding. They could only be summoned as a servant by the most elite of those that practiced the mystical arts of Ying-Yang, yet a user of Persona can also summon this being. It could be used to scare away demons that cause sickness and to ward off disasters to its master. The Shikiouji's basic nature is said to be very ferocious, making it very dangerous for average mystics to attempt to summon it.**

**Other notes: Compared to other Shiki-Ouji, for those of you who know Persona, Noah's is weaker than most others. The reason will be revealed in the future.**

* * *

**With that, Noah has finally awakened to his powers of the Wild Card. But why is Rodney inside the mysterious Midnight Channel? Who will be the second victim? I believe it's pretty obvious, but feel free to theorize who!**

**Next time: When another corpse is discovered, someone decides to take matters into their own hands, only to fight their inner demons instead.**


	6. The True Self

**Act I: An Unusual Mystery**

**Chapter 6: The True Self**

* * *

**Saturday, September 6th, 2014**

* * *

A nudge from Dave woke Noah from his sleep. It was Saturday, so it was easy to tell that Noah had no aspirations of getting up, especially after the exhausting and terrifying ventures he had endured the day before. Another nudge from his younger cousin caused him to wake up. He noticed not just Dave, but Sky also standing in front of his bed. He mentally thanked the heavens that he fell asleep in his regular clothes that night in his exhaustion.

"Okay," he finally was awake enough to speak, "What's with all the nudging?"

"Chris said we're supposed to go to the auditorium," Dave explained, "It's supposedly really important."

Noah gave a yawn and responded, "How important? Because I'm sure it's something stupid like-"

"We heard police sirens coming towards the academy today," Sky curtly explained, "Yeah. It sounds _really _important."

"...Oh." A sinking feeling settled in Noah's gut. This wasn't a good thing, that he could tell. He hoped that maybe this would be a follow-up investigation to Jasmine's death, but something told him that this was much more serious than that.

"Gonna take a shower?" Dave offered.

Before Noah could reply, Sky said, "He doesn't really have time. We've gotta get down there in like five minutes."

"What?!"

"Chill, Dave," Noah pulled the covers off of him and stood up, straightening out the wrinkles in his sweater vest, "I took a shower last night and threw my clothes back on. I'm clean. I just didn't feel like rummaging through my suitcase for some pajamas."

"Oh," Dave flashed a shade of pink in embarrassment and rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, y'know. Just making sure your hygiene is in good order, you know?"

"If that's what you want to call it," Noah shrugged dismissively.

"Then let's go," Sky gave a stern nod, "The quicker we get this done, the quicker we can enjoy the weekend, right?"

Something told Noah that this weekend wouldn't be anymore enjoyable than the dismal week had been.

* * *

Sky and Dave went to sit near their class, while Noah went to sit with the seniors. He was surprised that the school divided the seating chart in the auditorium by grade, but that was fine by him. He sat down by Owen, who automatically turned to face his best friend.

"Sup, little buddy?" the blonde teenager asked with a chortle, which was cut short when he noticed Noah's tired look, "Uh, are you okay?"

Noah pondered about telling Owen the truth. Would he believe him? Possibly. Did he want to get Owen involved? Not at all. Just because Noah didn't want the shoulder the burden at all didn't mean it was fair to push the burden onto someone else, especially someone as close to him as Owen.

"Didn't sleep well," he finally replied, "Don't worry about it. You sleep well?"

Owen shook his head, "No way, man. I saw something on that Midnight Channel I've heard people talking about. Like, it was this chick and she collapsed before it turned off again? Weird, huh?"

Weird was an understatement. Noah wondered if it was perhaps the same person that he, Gwen, and Cody saw a couple of nights back. Of course, if this is what it meant, this meant that shit was really starting to hit the fan and that was far from a good thing.

"I watched it the other night and missed last night," it wasn't a complete lie at least, "It's definitely weird that a channel only works at midnight on rainy nights to _begin _with."

"Woah," Owen showed surprise, "You watch it, too? I never thought you'd have an interest in something like that, Noah!"

Noah's words came out with some hollow cynicism with a touch of exhaustion, "I honestly didn't think I would either."

"Attention, students," a female teacher caught the student body's attention as she approached the podium, "Our principal, Principal Schwarz, will be taking the podium. We advise that you listen carefully to what he has to say."

As she stepped back, Noah noticed that Chris was fuming. It was easy to tell why. He always had to be the center of attention. The fact that another teacher got the attention of the student body, even if it was a childish thought, was irritating to him. That wasn't anything new. It _was _Chris McLean, after all.

Principal Schwarz approached the podium, clearing his throat and speaking eloquently, "My dearest students, it's with a heavy heart that I have to announce a tragedy that occurred last night."

The auditorium went deadly silent. The only noise that could be heard was a whisper now and again. When the principal finally decided that he had everyone's attention, he spoke solemnly as he relayed the news:

"Another victim has been taken after Miss Jasmine Bergin's unfortunate passing. Miss Sierra Obonsawin's body was found in the same place and in the same position as Miss Bergin's body."

It was then that it hit the entire student body at once, sending them up in arms with questions. What did this mean? Was this a serial murder case? Were the rest of the contestants from Total Drama who went missing deceased? What exactly would this do for the rest of the school year?

"Holy crap," Owen breathed in shock, "That's... That's messed up."

Noah's gaze turned to meet Cody's, who seemed absolutely mortified by the revelation. He stood up and dashed out of the auditorium. Noah watched as Gwen stood up and made her way after him.

Noah knew he was going to regret doing this, but regardless, he stood up from his seat and went off in pursuit of Cody and Gwen. The last words from the auditorium he heard were, "We will not be cancelling classes, but we will be enforcing some new safety precautions for the well-being of our students."

That was a flat out lie and Noah knew it. They just didn't want to do anything because they knew Chris McLean was paying the academy _way _too well.

* * *

Noah found Cody rubbing his eyes and Gwen looking on in the hallway. He wasn't sure exactly what to say to the tech geek, as sympathies and empathy wasn't exactly his strong suit. To his surprise, Cody spoke first.

"That Midnight Channel has something to do with everything, doesn't it?"

"What?" Gwen asked, surprised that Cody's first words weren't anguishing over Sierra's untimely death, "Your girlfriend died and _that_'s the first thing you come up with?"

"Just listen to me!" Cody snapped at Gwen, causing her to recoil slightly, "...I'm sorry, Gwen. I didn't mean it like that. I'm just... I'm at wit's end here."

"It's obvious that the Midnight Channel is part of this," Noah spoke, throwing in his two cents, "I think we figured that out yesterday."

Cody nodded, but gave the two some information that was a shock to them, "I watched the Midnight Channel last night. I _know _that was Sierra on there."

Gwen pursed her lips, "I was going to watch but all I wanted to do was lay down. Are you sure it was her?"

"Positive," the tech geek confirmed.

"Okay, then it was her," Noah commented, "But where exactly do we go with this? The police probably wouldn't entertain the thought of a world inside a TV long enough for us to show them, would they?"

"Of course not," Gwen agreed, shaking her head, "They'd probably think we're insane or something."

"Exactly," Cody nodded, "You two do know what this means, right?"

"...Unfortunately, I do," the bookworm frowned. He didn't want to admit it, but now that he was awakened to his Persona, he knew he was in too deep to turn back now.

"So, Noah," Cody wondered, his voice finally trying to regain its solidity, "Are you gonna help me get in or what? I know we argued yesterday and I know you don't want to be part of this, but you have that Persona thing. If something goes wrong, you could bail us out, I think."

Gwen shook her head and tried to reason with Cody, "Look. Sierra's important to you. We know that. But if you rush in like that, you'll both could get killed. I mean, what if it's a trap-"

"I'll help you."

Both Cody and Gwen were shocked by Noah's resolve. Cody's shock came with some relief that he would have someone to back him up while Gwen's shock came with bewilderment that the normally grounded cynic would agree to help so easily.

"Didn't you listen to anything I just said?" she asked the bookworm, crossing her arms over her corset.

"Do I look deaf to you?" Noah snarked, before shaking his head, "I don't have a choice in the matter anymore, do I? If I'm the Wild Card, I'm part of it. I'm supposed to help fix it. While I do feel like whoever chose me to be this Wild Card is wrong and that I'm not the type of person who needs to do this... it's too late to back out of it now. Yesterday had to have been the turning point."

Besides, there was very little Noah had to lose in this. As long as Owen, Izzy, Dave, Eva, and all the others were safe, it'd be fine if he didn't come back. He wasn't that important and he already had some nasty ties severed with his family. There wasn't much left to tie him down. In a way, maybe that's what he'd been looking for. Something, for better or worse, that would let him escape and try to feel important for once. To feel like he wasn't constantly under his older siblings's shadows.

"Thanks, man," Cody gave a half-hearted smile to Noah, "I really appreciate it."

"So?" Noah tried to ignore Cody's gratefulness, "What's the plan?"

"We go to the electronics department and go back in and see if we can find Rodney again," Cody explained, "Then we do some investigation."

"Talk about a half-baked plan," Noah deadpanned, before shrugging, "But it's the best we could probably do on short notice."

Gwen stared at the two before asking the million dollar question, "Are you two really thinking about going through with this? This isn't a game. This isn't something you can probably walk away from unscathed. We're _teenagers_, not heroes."

Cody turned to the goth and said the most profound thing that Noah had ever heard him say.

"If we don't, who will?"

"How philosophical," Noah uttered, forcing a chuckle from his throat.

"I try," Cody built up the strength of heart to tease his fellow geek, "Come on. Let's go."

With that, Cody dashed down the hallway. Noah was about to join him when he was grabbed by the shoulder by Gwen.

"You're not really thinking of helping him, right?" she asked.

Noah tried to give the most smug tone he could muster to cover up his fears, "What do I have to lose?"

As he ran down the hall, Gwen yelled after him, "Everything! You have _everything _to lose!"

She scowled, crossing her arms tighter across her torso. She had always had an interest in the mysterious and the morbid. She should have been the one to have the courage to do it. No. Cody and Noah probably didn't have the courage either. They just did it because Cody was probably overcome by grief and Noah probably felt forced to be part of it.

"Wasn't she hanging out with Cody the other day?" she heard a passing-by student say to another student as they passed by Gwen. Others must have left the auditorium early.

"Yeah," she heard the other student reply, "She's probably happy that Sierra's dead."

"No way," the first student seemed shocked, "Why do you think that?"

"She's always been a relationship ruiner, right?" the second student asked, before remembering, "She did cheat with Duncan on Courtney, didn't she?"

"Oh, you're right," the first student laughed coldly, "And what's sadder, she had no interest in Cody until he was dating Sierra. What a slut."

_What a slut. _Those words resounded in her mind. She had heard those words so many times since World Tour. She had been called a slut. She had been called a whore. She had been called a homewrecker. As much as she tried to show that she didn't care, it cut deeply. No one seemed to ever want to talk to her to know about _her. _They wanted to know why she reciprocated to Duncan's kiss, even when she was no longer dating the delinquent.

She wasn't a slut. At least she thought she wasn't.

She closed her eyes momentarily, before muttering to herself, "I better not be making the wrong choice here," before taking off down the hall in pursuit of Noah and Cody.

* * *

As they stood outside of the large television screen in the mall's electronic store, Noah noted that Cody had gathered supplies. And by supplies, it was a golf club for Cody to use for self-defense and a rope. The rope was only going to be used if Gwen showed up and the golf club was the response to Noah being gifted the sword when he summoned Shiki-Ouji.

And to their relief, Gwen _did _show up.

"Gonna talk us out of this again?" Noah asked, as he tied a section of the rope around his waist, the other section already tied to Cody.

"What's the use of that?" she arched an eyebrow, "No. I want to see what I can do to make sure you two don't get yourselves killed."

"I'm glad," Cody nodded in relief, "Because there really is something you can do. Hold onto the rope."

"I don't think a rope will work, will it?" Gwen asked, "I mean, you're pretty much going to another dimension."

"That's what I said," Noah scoffed, rolling his eyes, "But Cody's being _way _too idealist about this." To be honest, Noah thought Cody was taking this whole situation way too well. He seemed upset, but he didn't seem torn up about his girlfriend being killed and hung upside down from a telephone wire. At least, not as torn up as he probably should have been.

"The rope's just a safety net if we can't find Rodney," Cody explained, "If we tug on it, we want you to help pull us out. Sound like a plan?"

"It sounds like a plan; just not a very good one," the goth replied, taking the end of the rope, "But if that's what you want me to do, I'll be on rope duty, I guess."

"Thanks, Gwen," Cody gave the girl a grin before turning to Noah, "You ready, Noah-it-all?"

"Haven't heard that before," Noah sarcastically shot back, "But I'm ready as I'll ever be."

Noah reached his hand out past Cody and touched the screen, causing it to ripple like it did the day before. Cody then crawled through the ripples and inside as Noah did the same behind him.

"...Wait, what if someone asks how a rope is going through a television?" Gwen mused to herself, "_Then _what will I say?"

It was then that the rope severed, falling to the floor of the electronics department and the ripples subsequently ceased. It did answer that question, but opened up a new one.

Were Cody and Noah going to be alright or were they doomed from the get go?

* * *

Once again, Cody and Noah fell on their rumps inside the foggy television studio within the Midnight Channel. Noah noticed that once again, the sword from the day before was attached to the back of his shirt by a hilt. He stood up before noticing something disconcerting.

The rope had severed.

"Uh, Cody?"

Cody turned towards Noah before widening his eyes in horror and exclaiming, "Crap! Already?!"

"Here's hoping that Rodney's in here, then," Noah mused, "Because regardless, there will be no way we'll be able to get back out."

"Dude, don't say that!" Cody scolded, "It's bad enough that we got the courage to go in here! Try to be _somewhat _optimistic?"

Noah rolled his eyes, "We're in an alternate dimension where we have reason to believe that two people died in here. How can I be optimistic about that?"

"Well, I kinda can explain what's going on there," a familiar voice spoke, "But uh, why are you guys back in here? And where's Gwen?"

"Gwen's outside," Cody frowned, speaking curtly, "Wait... You can explain what's going on?"

Rodney, for some reason sporting a pair of black glasses, stepped forward and nodded before elaborating, "Someone's throwing people in here. Wait... Is it you two?! I mean, Jasmine and Sierra were thrown in here and they're girls, and Gwen's not with you so you might be planning to throw her in next!"

"Okay, you're jumping to conclusions," Noah stated, crossing his arms, "We're in here to investigate this since Sierra was lover boy over here's girlfriend. What do you mean by throwing people in here?"

Rodney gave the two a suspicious look before shrugging. He had no reason to believe they were lying, but had no reason to believe they were telling the truth either.

"Just like I said, y'all," he explained, "Someone threw those two in here. I reckon the shadows got them and then assimilated the wounds so the killer could take them back out easily and have no evidence."

"You sure know a lot," Cody furrowed his brow, "What if you're the killer?"

Rodney shook his head, "No way! I'm trapped in here! I can let other people out but I can't get out. I dunno why, either."

"Did you get here after you and Max visited Scarlett in jail?" Noah asked, already knowing the answer.

"Woah, are you psychic or something?" Rodney asked, raising his eyebrows in interest.

"Do I look like Dawn to you?"

"Dawn's kinda pretty," Rodney broke out in a grin, "Really, really short, but really, really pretty."

"Come on, man, focus!" Cody snapped his fingers, "I thought I was bad about getting distracted around ladies."

"Tell me about it," Noah added light-heartedly, mostly to try and silence his loud heartbeat.

"Well, yeah, that's when it happened," Rodney explained, "How'd 'ya know that?"

Noah tried to think on how to explain it to the big oaf before saying, "Let's just say that I know that Max and Scarlett are safe. They're in another dimension, kinda like this one."

"I'm glad Scarlett's safe," Rodney sighed in relief, before quickly adding, "Uh, Max, too! Heheheh... Well, if y'all are trying to figure this out, is there anything I can do to help?"

Cody looked around for a moment, before noticing a door the group hadn't noticed the last time they were there. It seemed as if it wasn't there the last time at all.

"Think you can go with us inside that door?"

Rodney nodded, "Yeah, I think that's where I noticed someone before they died. I _thought _it was Sierra, because I could hear the noise of people watching the Midnight Channel last night, and man. Sucks that I was right."

"Wait," Noah interrupted the much taller teenager, "Are you saying you can hear the people watching the Midnight Channel everytime it turns on?"

"I guess?" the red-head confirmed with a bewildered shrug.

Cody turned to Noah in likewise bewilderment, "Wait, what's that gotta do with anything?"

"Think about it," Noah explained, "If we can see what's going on from the real world and Rodney can hear what's going on from in here-"

"It's like a two-way communication system!" Cody exclaimed, "If Rodney can listen closely, there's a possibility that the killer could be watching and enjoying the deaths! Then we'd get our culprit! Right?"

"Bingo," the bookworm nodded in approval.

"I could try that," Rodney said, before turning to Noah, "but if I take you guys into the room I think Sierra's in, if any shadows come in, you're gonna hafta do what you did yesterday or we're goners."

Noah skeptically muttered, "If I can even summon that thing again."

"It's worth a shot, right?" Cody asked, "I gotta see if I can find something to solve this case. Anything."

And anything was what Cody was going to get, bitter or not.

* * *

Noah and Cody quickly recognized the new room as a direct replica of the dorms from school. This caused the cogs in their heads to turn and they each came across the same ending factor.

The room they and Gwen found the other day was probably meant to be a replica of Jasmine's bedroom, presumably back home in Australia. That still didn't explain the weapons and the pictures with Jasmine and Shawn's faces cut out of them.

"This is too freaky," Cody shuddered, "This is like an _exact _replica of the dorms."

"I ain't that bright," Rodney commented, nervously poking his fingers together, "but I reckon wherever the victims end up is reality for them."

"Reality?" Noah asked, as that was a weird word for Rodney to bring up, "How so?"

"I dunno," Rodney shrugged, "It was a guess, but I reckon Jasmine and Sierra's thoughts and that kinda mumbo jumbo was what made these new rooms."

Noah gave a low hum before stating, "I'd believe it. This world clearly is supernatural enough to have its own rules like that."

"Let's try to go to Sierra's room," Cody decided, "If this is reality for them, it only makes sense to try and go in Sierra's dormroom-"

Cody was cut-off by a horrifyingly familiar sloshing sound. The three boys cautiously and nervously turned to see two puddles of black slime forming into the circular mouths with long tongues from the last time they were inside the Midnight Channel.

"Uh, if you can do that sparkly knighty thingy again, that'd be great!" Rodney gulped, backing up behind Noah.

"Like I said, I'm not even sure I know _how_," Noah lamented, as the slimy mouths began to levitate closer to them.

**"That's simple," **the familiar raspy voice of Shiki-Ouji suddenly resounded in Noah's mind, **"Hold out your hand, picture me, and clench your fist while calling my name."**

"Uh, you're picking _now _to tell me this?!" Cody and Rodney turned to Noah, looking frightened and bewildered that he still hadn't summoned the knight again and that he was seemingly talking to himself.

**"Yes," **the demonic knight's voice spoke in Noah's mind again, **"However, you do not have to speak to me aloud when I'm not summoned. Just think my name at anytime and I'll answer you. Speak to me aloud when I'm summoned, only."**

"Wish I could have known that earlier," Noah muttered. His hand was shaky but he slowly outstretched it in front of him. Closing his eyes, he pictured Shiki-Ouji in his mind. A warm light began to emulate from above his palm and the burning sensation returned to the back of his neck, giving him the go-to to clench his fist. The shattering of the card was heard as Noah opened his eyes, Shiki-Ouji forming above him.

**"This time," **Shiki-Ouji spoke aloud, **"I'll let you do the work. Follow my instructions and draw your blade."**

Noah, still shaking, reached behind him and drew his blade from the hilt. Shiki-Ouji, in tandem sans the shakiness, drew his blade as well.

**"Excellent," **the paper-like white knight stated in his raspy voice as he floated down to stand in front of Noah, **"Imagine my directions towards the opponent and I will move that direction. However, all of the movements from my blade must be emulated from yours."**

"You have _got _to be kidding me-"

Noah grunted as the two shadows flew around Shiki-Ouji, one of them extending its tongue and sending Noah flying backwards and on his back. Shiki-Ouji flew back as well, landing in front of Noah.

**"I would recommend standing back up."**

"I-I know that!"

Noah staggered back up, as Shiki-Ouji did the same. The Shadows flew their direction again, as Noah shakily rose his blade to the sky before dropping it down and causing Shiki-Ouji to cleave through the first shadow.

**"Crude, but to the point," **the Persona congratulated, **"Now. You may command me to use spells as well, which I will prefer on my own. Right now, I know a spell known as Bash. As it's a physical spell, it will hurt a bit for you to cast it, but it'll be much more effective. Quickly!"**

Hurt. He already was hurting from the burning sensation on his neck. Regardless, mostly to save his own life, he shouted, as the pain intensified, "Bash!"

It was then that Shiki-Ouji spun around and gave a strong corkscrew punch into the side of one of the remaining mouth, crashing through its teeth and through its body, killing it on instant. It was then that Shiki-Ouji returned to its card and floated back into Noah's body, chuckling amusedly, **"Not bad, for an amateur host."****  
**

The pain in Noah's neck finally subsided and he collapsed onto his butt in shock that he was actually able to do it. He shakily returned his sword back to its hilt as Cody and Rodney made their way to him.

"Y'all did it!" Rodney congratulated with a grin.

Cody extended his hand out to him, "Who woulda thought you had it in you? I mean, I didn't."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Noah muttered as Cody helped him up.

Before Cody could reply, the noise of a crowd flooded all three teenagers's senses. A few voices in general stood out, but they weren't of anyone they knew.

"Like, OMG, I hope Sierra wins Total Drama World Tour!" one of the voices exclaimed brightly.

Another voice said, in a much more neutral tone, "I wish I had gotten in instead of her..."

"She didn't deserve to be part of the show," a voice with disdain coldly stated, "She's no better than the other members of the fandom."

"...Hey, Rodney?" Cody asked, turning to the taller teen, "What's going on?"

"The shadows are getting agitated I reckon," Rodney replied, "Or this might be Sierra's reality. How she really felt. Um... Not to worry you guys, but we probably need to mosey on over to her room before more shadows show up."

He didn't have to tell either of them that twice.

* * *

Sierra's dorm room was shared with Cameron, Sugar, and Topher. That was pretty apparent pretty quickly. Unlike Jasmine's bedroom, the dorm room looked like every other dorm room at the Heavenly Plane Academy, sans the fog of course.

"What are you two even looking for?" Rodney asked as the two geeks ravaged through the replicated items in the dorm.

"Evidence," Noah replied, as he threw a bag down, "But I don't see anything useful."

"Yeah," Cody agreed, a little disappointed, "Let's go back."

The three were about to make their way back to the door, when a familiar voice came from above them.

"I'm sorry, Codykins."

"Sierra?" Cody asked, eyes wide as he stopped and stared up at the ceiling.

"Hey, gentle giant," Noah turned to Rodney, "What gives?"

"I'm not sure but..." Rodney surmised, "I think this was her last thoughts before she died... If I could guess."

"I'm sorry," she repeated, "Even though it's everything I ever wanted, I wasn't a good girlfriend after all."

Cody shook his head, "No, she was a great-"

"I shouldn't have cheated on you."

Everything fell silent. Rodney didn't know what to say. Noah didn't know what to say.

"Wh-what?"

"I knew that you weren't dating me because you loved me," her voice continued, "I knew you only saw me as a best friend. But it was fun for a while! But Cameron actually cared, you know?"

Noah blinked in confusion. Cameron was kind of adverse to Sierra, wasn't he?

As if reading Noah's mind, Sierra's voice continued, "I treated him like him. I didn't treat him like you for once, And it just... Happened. I don't wanna be here, Cody. I don't wanna die in this foggy place! I-"

Sierra's voice cut off abruptly.

"Sierra?!" Cody shouted, "Sierra?!"

"Cody," Noah spoke, trying to remind him, "She's already gone."

"Like he really cares," a distorted voice that sounded like Cody's came from across the room, "All she was to him was a pawn."

The three teenagers turned to face a second Cody, staring back at them. He looked exactly like the Cody they knew except for bright yellow eyes fixed in a piercingly haunting stare.

"Wh-who are you?!" Cody exclaimed, "Why do you look like me?!"

The other Cody chuckled, "Well, that's simple. I'm you. Your shadow. I know everything about you."

"Uh, please tell me this is normal," Noah commented to Rodney. Rodney simply shook his head, not knowing what was about to go off.

"My shadow?" Cody repeated, before hardening his gaze, "No. You don't know nothing about me! This is-"

Shadow Cody erupted into a burst of amused giggles, "Oh, don't I? Of course I do! I know for a fact that you only dated Sierra to make Gwen jealous! It was all a step in a plan to get you closer to your dream girl!"

"N-no, that's not-"

"Tut, tut," the Shadow cut him off, "Don't be so modest! You know it's the truth! You haven't changed a bit! _We _haven't changed a bit! We're still keen on little 'ole Gwennie and we still wanna tap that!"

"No, I respect Gwen!" Cody shook his head wildly, disagreeing vehemently with what the doppelgänger was saying, "It's not true! How could you know this crap?!"

Another calm chuckle, "I already told you. I'm you. And you're me. All we want is some glorified **wish fulfillment. **We want the girl. We want the glory. Not that smartassed know-it-all over there! We should be the Wild Card! Not him!"

"Shut up!" Cody finally exploded in anger, "Shut up, shut up, shut up! You're not me! _You're **not **me!"_

A shadowy aura began to surround the other Cody, as he began to laugh one more time, "That's right. That's right! Say it again! Fulfill _my _wish!"

"You're not me, you freak!"

"Uh-oh," Rodney commented, as Shadow Cody's aura got bigger and more malevolent.

Noah was still a little shocked by Cody's supposed hatred that he received the Wild Card, but turned to Rodney regardless, "Uh... What's 'uh-oh?'"

"Hit the deck!" Rodney tackled Noah to the ground. Noah was about to protest when he saw a mass crowd of shadows form around the dorm room, sliding across the walls and ceiling, making their way towards the other Cody. It was covered in the shadows, as the aura around it grew bigger and bigger by the moment. In a burst of destructive power, sending the real Cody flying backwards, the shadow evolved.

As if it was a cruel mockery of its words that Cody was wishing for wish fulfillment, the shadow had changed to a purple-tinted, malevolent genie. Its teeth were pointed, its nose was long, and hearts replaced its eyes. The only thing that kept him any resemblance to the real Cody was the hairstyle adorned on the genie's head. Its wisp-like tail transformed into large, muscular legs to match its muscular arms.

And it had its sight set on Noah.

Rodney got off of Noah and backed up. Unfortunately, Noah knew why. Rodney wasn't going to be of any help. It was all up to him and Shiki-Ouji to take care of the wicked monster in front of them.

Noah stood up and uneasily drew his blade, before using his other hand to reach out and crush the invisible card in his hand, nervously shouting, "C... Come, Shiki-Ouji!" Just like the previous time, Shiki-Ouji appeared above Noah's head.

"I am a shadow," the distorted genie spoke, "The true self. What's so wrong with getting what you want once in a while? In fact, I think I'll grant my own wish! I wish for you to die!" A whip formed in the genie's hand as it cracked it and began to make its movement towards Noah.

**"Prepare yourself, Wild Card," **Shiki-Ouji spoke, "**I'd rather not bury you _yet_**."

This was just great. Noah was being pitted against the malevolent inner demon of Cody's, Rodney was no help, and the only help he had was a possibly mentally unstable demon knight at his side.

Whatever he did in a past life to deserve this, he really hoped he could survive this battle.

* * *

**I think we'll cut it off there with a cliffhanger. Isn't that generous?**

**Will Noah find a way to defeat Cody's Shadow? And if he does, will this lead to any breakthroughs in the mystery?**

**Next time: A fight to the death is on. An inexperienced Wild Card VS. a demonic representation of Cody's psyche.**


	7. You're Me and I'm You

**Act I: An Unusual Mystery**

**Chapter Seven: **You're Me and I'm You

* * *

"You know, that's not very comforting!"

Shiki-Ouji turned back to face his host, before giving a grunt that was synonymous to a stilted laugh, **"All I'm saying is, you wouldn't be the first Wild Card that ended up as a casualty."**

And that was even more concerning. Still not used to wielding a blade, he held it awkwardly as the lumbering form of the muscular genie lumbered closer to the teen and his Persona. The more Noah looked at the monster, the more he could see that it had more than a little "subtle" irony to it. The muscular form contrasted from Cody's weak frame. The hearts for eyes were obviously a mockery of Cody's flirty nature. Most importantly, a genie for someone that wanted nothing more than wish fulfillment was just taking the entire situation and playing it like a fiddle.

If he wasn't so horrified by the situation or the fact that previous Wild Cards had died in their own ventures, he probably would have laughed.

The sound of a whip crack brought him back to his senses. Before he knew what to do, the whip cracked again, this time extending and wrapping around Noah's neck, quickly and smoothly picking him up and flinging him backwards into one of the walls of the dormitory.

"Leave him alone!" Cody shouted, but was held back by Rodney. Without a Persona, they were all but useless, that was for sure.

**"Stand up," **Shiki-Ouji commanded its host, **"This is mortifying to witness."**

Noah scowled and slowly rose up to his feet. He thought for a moment, trying to remember how to command Shiki-Ouji in battle. He pictured Shiki-Ouji moving forward and he did, as Noah raised his sword high and brought it down, Shiki-Ouji bringing down its own blade down towards the genie.

The shadow slipped to the right, barely dodging the attack. It cracked its whip again, hitting Shiki-Ouji on the chest. To Noah's horror, the same feeling impacted his chest. It was then that it finally struck him.

He and Shiki-Ouji was connected.

"Is that all you've got?" Shadow Cody bellowed with a loud voice, "I guess my wish is going to come true after all, huh?"

Raising a hand, the demonic genie summoned a fireball and sent it spiraling towards Shiki-Ouji, which Noah countered by ducking just in time. With an uncertain yell, he commanded his Persona, "Bash!"

A quick slam to the genie's cheek sent its head reeling back for a moment, before turning to face the Persona again. With the blade in their hands, Noah and Shiki-Ouji took this chance to land a slash on the genie's right leg. It was a deceitful tactic, but Noah believed that anything was fair in a fight to the death. It only seemed natural, of course. As the genie scooped low to nurse its wounded knee, an annoyed look crossed its face. He stumbled back up and held its whip high in the air, before blowing a stream of flames onto the whip, catching it on fire.

"...Great."

The whip cracked again, this time slapping Shiki-Ouji across its armored face. A burning sensation briefly boiled on Noah's own cheek before quickly subsiding. The speed of the pain terrified him, but at the same time, he was slightly grateful that for some reason, the pain would disappear and not leave any scars almost instantly.

He wondered if dying this way would be the same way.

"This isn't even a challenge," the genie taunted, "I thought you'd put up more of a fight than _this!_"

**"He's right," **Shiki-Ouji had to agree, **"I've never seen such an apprehensive, weak Wild Card, or even a summoner at all, in all of my centuries. This is pointless."**

It _was _pointless. Noah knew that. He wasn't cut out to be the Wild Card, nor was he cut out to be even part of this situation. Fate was wrong. Destiny was wrong. He wasn't a fighter, he usually didn't care enough to be part of things like this, and he really wished he just trusted his brain like he always did. If he did, he never would have gotten in this situation in the first place.

But Owen would have a chance to die.

Owen could die. Dave could die. Izzy could die. Eva could die. Sky could die. And if he didn't do something soon, he knew that he, Cody, and Rodney would _definitely _die.

It went against everything Noah stood for. Sense. Knowledge. Wisdom. Skepticism. But those things that he gripped to and believed in had been turned upside down in just a week. There was more to the world than what he could see or experience or believe in. There was supernatural forces at work, and they wanted destruction. To what end, he didn't know.

But, honestly, he didn't want to find out.

"So you've resigned to your fate," the genie decided, "Perfect. Now, to end this!"

Inhaling and inflating ever-so-slightly, the shadow built up the fires within its body, causing the monster to change colors from green to red. He blew out a steady force of flames towards Noah, seemingly engulfing him in the flames.

"Bash!"

That one word signified the turning point of the battle. While the genie was building up the flames, Noah had called Shiki-Ouji to get in front of him. A now flaming Shiki-Ouji used the flames coursing through the knight's body to their advantage. With a spinning, flaming roundhouse kick, the flaming kick smashed directly into the hearts on the genie's face, setting the monster aflame. It then joined Noah's chorus of screaming in agony due to the flames. Barely able to even move, Noah swung the blade in his hands to the right.

The genie was beheaded.

The searing pain dancing across Noah's skin promptly vanished. He fell to his knees as a thick exhaustion washed over his body. He as the hulking form of the genie returned to the form of being Cody's doppleganger, the head reforming onto the shadow's shoulders. The next thing he noticed was Rodney and Cody rushing over to stand beside him, the former helping the Indian teen to his feet.

"That was awesome!" Rodney exclaimed, "How'd you do it?" Noah could only offer a shrug in return. He wasn't really sure to be honest.

**"Indeed," **Shiki-Ouji spoke, **"Awesome is a word for it. But heed my words, the battles will only get harder from here on out. If you have any more apprehensive feelings on the matter, you probably should just let this mystery claim your lives."**

With those cold words, Shiki-Ouji returned to card form and floated back inside Noah, who muttered, "Gee. He sure does offer a lot of help, doesn't he?"

Cody, however, had his mind set on the other him on the other side of the room. The dead-eyed doppelganger stared back at Cody, causing the real COdy to avert his eyes ever so slightly.

"That's not-"

"I reckon it went out of control because you rejected it," Rodney pointed out, "I think you gotta... err..."

"Probably accept it," Noah mused aloud, "I'm not too sure either, but anything's better than having to fight that thing again." He honestly believed he couldn't a second time.

Cody rose his head once again to look the shadow in the eyes, "...You're not wrong. I did want all of my wishes to come true. I wanted Gwen to be jealous. I just... wanted Gwen in general. So, I thought using Sierra would be a way to make that happen, but that probably wasn't the right way to go about it."

He shook his head before continuing, "I let my lust control me so I could fulfill some crap that shouldn't have even mattered. And now, I lost my best friend because of it. It's... All my fault."

"You didn't kill her, right?" Noah asked, only to be met by an angry glare, in which he defended, "Hey, hey, hey. I was just saying, it's not your fault she's dead."

Cody's features softened before he turned back towards his Shadow, "For once, I guess I have to agree with Noah, even if I got jealous that he's this 'Wild Card' or whatever. But I get it. I don't wanna admit it, but I think I understand. You're me, and I'm you. Or at least... You're a _part _of me."

The Shadow stared back at Cody for a moment, before giving a solemn nod. The body of the doppelganger then began to dissolve into nothingness. In a flash of bright light, he was replaced by a more standard looking genie, with his arms folded in front of him.

**"My name is Jinn," **the genie spoke, **"I am your facade to overcome the hardships of life. I am your Persona. While I'm not allowed to grant you any wishes, I will fight alongside you."**

The genie then disappeared into a small blue card, floating over to Cody and entering inside of him, just like Shiki-Ouji would to Noah. A warm feeling encompassed Cody for a moment before disappearing.

"So this is my Persona?" he asked no one in particular.

"At least this finally explains what Personas are," Noah wondered, "'A facade to overcome the hardships of life,' huh?"

"We should probably get outta here," Rodney mentioned, "I don't reckon now's the time to worry about no shadows, right?"

Noah gave a tired nod to the taller teenager. He looked over at Cody, who seemed to be just as exhausted as he did himself. Rodney opened the door and walked out of the dorm room, with Noah in pursuit. Cody took one more look around the dorm room before exiting behind the other two.

"I'll find the killer, Sierra. I promise."

* * *

It didn't take long for the trio to make it back to the entrance. It also didn't take Cody long to announce something to the other two.

"I wanna solve this mystery," he spoke with conviction, "For Sierra. I guess for Jasmine too. But I don't want anyone else dead, you know?"

"I assume that you could probably enter the Midnight Channel on your own, right?" Noah figured.

Cody gave the other teenager an amused look, "Not chickening out, are you? I mean. We're the only two people who can use this power, right?"

"Unfortunately," he begrudgingly agreed, before giving a look to Cody that he thought he'd never give him; a determined one, saying, "But I guess if I'm really supposed to be part of all this, then I don't have a choice, do I?"

"So, wait," Rodney asked, "Are you guys really gonna try to solve it?"

Cody nodded, "Yeah. We're gonna find the killer and bring them to the light. Errr, or something like that."

"I'll help y'all the best I can!" Rodney exclaimed with a grin, "I might not know everything 'bout this place, but I ain't gonna leave buddies in need!"

"Buddies?" Noah repeated, finally feeling calm enough to slip back into his usual sarcastic tone of voice.

Rodney laughed, "Yeah! We're buddies! Right?"

"If we're working together, we probably should be," Cody stated with a shrug.

"Oh!" the taller of the three boys explained, "You guys'll need these then!"

The gentle giant dug in his pocket, pulling out a pair of glasses. One being gold and one being silver. He quickly gave Cody the gold pair and Noah the silver pair.

"Glasses?" Cody looked confused, before remembering that Rodney was wearing some at that very moment, "Wait, there's a point to those specs?"

"I found a whole load of 'em in a place I use as a hidey hole," Rodney explained, "Put 'em on! They'll help you see through this fog!"

"How convenient," Noah snarked, ignoring the whole 'hidey hole' comment for now. He slowly rose the glasses to eye level before putting them on, as Cody did the same. To their shock, while they were wearing the glasses, the fog was gone from their vision. As if it never was there in the first place.

"This place is so weird," Cody commented, "First somebody throwing people in here, then monsters, then monsters born of... Freudian crap, I guess, and now these glasses?"

"Something tells me it'll just get weirder by the moment," Noah replied, taking the glasses back off and asking Rodney, "Can you take us back?"

"Yeah," Rodney agreed, "You guys look exhausted. I used to be when I first got here, but I've gotten used to it, I reckon."

"Wait, can't you leave too?" Cody inquired.

The red-head shook his head, "I can open those doors on the floor, but it won't let me open 'em for myself, I guess. Oh! Right! Getting you guys out."

"Okay, can you warn us when-" Noah was cut off by Rodney stomping his feet twice, opening the trap doors under the two geeks and sending them spiraling back to the real world.

* * *

Gwen didn't expect to suddenly be tackled by Cody and Noah coming out of the television. Noah rolled off of Gwen when he came to his senses, while Cody sat there for a second and turned his face away from Gwen's before getting up and helping her up as well.

"You guys made it back," Gwen commented, a tone of pleasant surprise gracing her voice, "Well? How'd it go?"

"Well, we know that the killer's killing them by throwing people in there," Noah explained, before jerking his thumb towards Cody, "And casanova over here got himself a Persona."

Gwen turned to Cody when Noah said this and asked, "Wait. That demonic thing Noah summoned the other day?"

Cody nodded in confirmation, "Yeah. I think mine called himself... Jinn or something?"

"That's probably a Djinn then," Gwen mused for a moment, before asking, "Then I'm going to have to get mine next, right?"

Cody and Noah shared uneasy glances. They knew what had just went down, and parts of them didn't really want to put Gwen's life in danger. Cody finally answered with, "Well, I don't think you should-"

"I'm not just going to sit here and be you two's secret keeper," she interrupted him, crossing her arms, "I experienced that world too. And if that killer's targeting Total Drama contestants, then I think I have the right to be able to defend myself."

"But-"

"I'm not gonna argue it," Noah admitted, turning to the goth, "You're stronger than both of us physically. We don't have to protect you. Plus, three heads work better than two, I guess."

"That actually sounded leaderlike," Gwen teased the bookworm.

"Eh. A once in a lifetime slip."

"Let's just sleep on it, okay?" Cody asked, "Then maybe we can talk about it tomorrow. Sound like a fair deal?"

Gwen and Noah shared glances before both shrugging and nodding to Cody. Gwen knew she had already won the argument, while Noah really wanted to go back to the dorm room and relax. There wasn't any point arguing it right then.

* * *

On top of feeling wiped out, Noah was irritated to find out that it had started raining while he and Cody were inside the Midnight Channel. He ran through the sidewalk, before finally finding a building with a scaffold to protect him from the rain.

"Noah?"

He turned to see none other than Katie standing under the scaffold, as she asked, "Why are you out in the rain?"

"I didn't know it was raining," he replied, trying to hide his exhaustion from being inside the TV World, "Besides, I could ask you the same thing."

Katie frowned and turned away, "I can't find Sadie."

"I thought you two weren't friends anymore?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

"We are-" Katie stopped herself before shaking her head and saying, "I shouldn't have said what I said to her. But... Things change, I guess."

"Between two people who are supposed to be best friends?" Noah asked for a moment before replying, "It's not as shocking as you think."

The girl opened her mouth before closing it. That was a decent point. She turned away again and watched the rain begin to lessen.

"Are we friends?"

Noah shrugged, "We talked some in the first season. I mean, friends is probably pushing it, but when you two aren't squealing, you're decent."

"So, you consider Sadie your friend, too?"

"Again," he exasperatedly repeated, "You're decent. That doesn't necessarily make us friends. If I had to pick between you two and, say, Heather; I'd choose you two in a heartbeat, I suppose."

"Then it's possible?" Katie asked in curiosity, "You could see us- The three of us, as friends?"

He pondered over that for a moment before giving a shrug, "I guess?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt you both, but I have something to tell one of you."

The two turned towards the new voice, Katie and Noah both widening their eyes in surprise, Katie a bit more surprised than the other teenager. Standing before them was Dawn, one of the supposedly missing contestants from the show. The rain had lessened considerably, as the sun fought to peek through the clouds.

"...Wait, hold up," Katie squinted her eyes and wrinkled her nose in unbelief, "I thought you went, like, _missing_?"

"That's both... correct and incorrect," Dawn stated, enigmatically, "But if you can, please don't let anyone know of my safety right now. Now's not the time for that."

"Not the time?" Noah snarked, an eyebrow raised, "You went _missing. _Now's _always _the time to let people know you're fine."

She shook her head at the cynic, "You wouldn't understand, but I'm willing to tell you." The short, blonde girl turned to Katie and asked, "Do you promise that you won't let anyone know right now?"

"Uh, sure," Katie awkwardly agreed, "I'm not really sure what's going on, but... You have my word, I guess."

Dawn curtly nodded, as a smile graced her violet painted lips, "Thank you. Now, if you'll excuse us."

"I didn't really say I was _going _to talk to you...?" Noah trailed off, but that was to no avail. Dawn was already walking to a place they could discuss something. He gave a haggard sigh as he stood up and muttered, "Always a freakshow around here, isn't it?"

Katie quipped with a shrug, "Wouldn't be Total Drama then, would it?"

Noah couldn't help but laugh at that, unsure if he found it actually funny or if the events that had transpired had worn him out.

* * *

Dawn had stopped on a hill that overlooked the academy, to Noah's disdain. He hated climbing hills, but compared to what he had done earlier, a hill seemed like nothing in comparison. Still, the exhaustion from the Midnight Channel wasn't helping the climb at all. Once he reached the top, he bent over and touched his knees, trying his hardest to catch his breath. It was then that Dawn turned around to face him and spoke.

"You awakened the power of the Wild Card, didn't you?"

Between his haggard breaths, he admitted, "I... ugh... didn't have much of a... choice, now did I?"

"You did," she replied, matter-of-factly, "You could have heeded my warning and forged a different path. Unfortunately, your fate is now sealed."

"Cut the crap," he finally stood back up and frowned, "You know something about this, right? I'm probably too deep into this to fall back now, so you might as well tell me the truth, right?"

She shook her head, "There's no 'crap' to cut, for starters. Nor is there any truth to this matter. As far as I'm aware, this is the path you've set out on. I have reason to believe, however, that it'll all be for not; or at the very least, will come at a great price."

"And you know this, how?"

"I believe Max and Scarlett will let you know that," she explained, "But then again, I probably have said too much. Please forget that."

"You just told me that Max and Scarlett know something about all of this and then you tell me to forget that you ever even clued me in," the Wild Card deadpanned, "Wow. It's been a while since I've heard something so overly complicated and convoluted."

She ignored that and instead inferred, "The reason why you accepted the terms of being the Wild Card is because you find yourself to be just average, correct?"

"...What?"

She turned away from him, crossing her arms behind her back, "Your aura seems to suggest that, anyway. You're tired of being average and you're tired of not mattering in the great scheme of things. Am I wrong?"

He scowled for a moment before nodding, "Dead wrong."

"I see," she refrained from arguing that point and instead asked, "Are you the only one who awoke to the power of the Persona?"

"Cody did," the bookworm admitted, "Why does that matter?"

"Don't get anyone else involved in this," she frowned, "It's awful enough that you two are already doomed to fail. You mustn't endanger anyone else's life."

Noah pursed his lips and stared down at the grass below his feet. Gwen already had mentioned that she wanted to be part of it, and he encouraged that. Mostly because he knew that if Gwen really wanted to do it, it'd be a waste of energy to stop her. Plus, if she awakened to her Persona, with how physically strong she was, she most likely would be a lot more help in the situation than he or Cody would be combined.

"...Your silence speaks volumes."

"I heard you," Noah crossed his arms, before asking, "Is there anything else that you want to tell me?"

"Yes," she nodded, turning back towards the Wild Card with a nod, "Do not die."

"...Reassuring."

"I should go," Dawn remarked, looking up at the sky, "It's almost sundown. I'm positive we'll meet again, Noah."

"And if we do, will you give me more concrete answers than just, 'Don't die?'" he asked.

"For that, time will tell," an amused giggle escaped the moonchild's throat as she walked past Noah and down the hill. Noah watched her walk for a minute before turning back at the sight of the academy from the height of the hill.

**"So that is what you humans call school," **Noah jumped when he heard Shiki-Ouji's voice in his head, **"Most fascinating."**

"Will you _warn _me when you decide to talk in my head?!" the bookworm shouted in annoyance.

**"I thought I said you could speak to me using youe thoughts?" **the demon asked, its voice carrying a hint of amusement, **"Unless, of course, you like to be considered to be a basket case of some kind like you're being considered now."**

Noah turned to see an old man looking at him in concern about shouting to a seemingly invisible person in the middle of nowhere. Noah gave a groan and made his way down the hill. He just really, _really _wanted to go back to the dorm room.

* * *

Once again, Dave had opted to stay over with Shawn. He had told Sky and Noah that Shawn was pretty much grieving himself to death over the fact that now someone had been found dead over finding Jasmine's corpse. Both of Dave's roommates understood the concern and neither seemed to have a reason to stop him from trying to console his best friend.

Once more was Sky and Noah sitting on the couch, watching Sky's old black and white television. The news was talking about Sierra's murder, to neither of the roommates's surprise.

"Our next story is an update in our ongoing report about the bizarre murders surrounding the contestants of the hit reality show, Total Drama," the newscaster began, "Around Seven AM, one of the contestants, Sierra Obonsawin, was found dead near Heavenly Plane Academy. Since the body was positioned similarly to the previous corpse, and due to the fact that Miss Obonsawin found the body, police are proceeding under the assumption that this may bea serial murder case relating to the death of Jasmine Bergin's body."

"Seriously?!" Sky exclaimed, crossing her arms, "This _may _be?! It obviously is!"

"I'm so glad we have the world's top minds at our disposal to solve the case," Noah sarcastically uttered, "I feel so safe and secure."

"This shouldn't be much of a surprise," Sky added, before asking, "Did you hear of that case down in the States?"

Noah mused for a moment before turning to Sky, "That Ferguson case or whatever?"

The athlete nodded, "The police are useless and corrupt. At least that's what I believe. How can they solve some big murder case if they end up slaughtering innocent people elsewhere and not even get in trouble for it?"

Noah shrugged, "Point taken. I guess we shouldn't be surprised, then, huh?"

She silently shook her head in reply, before turning back towards the television screen. The announcer continued, "...Earlier today, we decided to interview those who knew Sierra out of the cast to see what they thought."

"And that's a good idea, why?" Noah scoffed. Sky didn't reply, but the look on her face implied that she shared the sentiment.

"...No comment," Noah heard Cody's voice on the television.

"Damn it, Cody," the bookworm muttered, "That's the _exact _worst thing that you could have said to put suspicion onto you."

Sky turned to her roommate and asked, "You don't think he did it?"

"What motive would he have?" Noah snapped, generally because of his exhausted state from being inside the Midnight Channel, "Sierra _was_ his best friend, right?"

"Woah there," the Asian-Cree teenager rose her hands in defense, "I was just playing the devil's advocate!" She then teased, "It's stuff like that, that makes people think you're in love with him!"

"...No comment." Sky beamed in satisfaction when Noah was forced to repeat Cody's words.

"Oh, yeah, I was a big fan of her blog posts on us before she joined the show!" Sadie was now on television, "I'm really, really, _really _sorry that she died and I wish her family the best!"

It was then that it hit Noah. Didn't Katie say she couldn't find Sadie earlier? If these were live interviews, it'd explain a lot. But instead, they said that it was filmed earlier in the day.

The bookworm looked up at the ceiling, the wheels in his head turning. It was raining again tonight. Maybe this would be the perfect time to test a theory. Sure, he had no grounds for it, but it would beat just sitting around and not having any leads whatsoever.

"...What're you looking at?"

"Uh, ostriches turn their heads to the sky when its raining, right?" Noah segwayed into a snark, "Primal desires and all that."

"...You know, it's when you do that, I can tell that you're related to Dave."

"I'll ignore the meaning I know you meant by that and just take that as a compliment."

* * *

Midnight. Rain was pouring from above. Sky had went on to bed, once again leaving Noah in the main part of the dorm, the channel of the television switched to Channel 666. One theory ended up correct, as the Midnight Channel seemed to turn on _every time _it was midnight and raining. To his surprise, however, a second theory ended up being correct as well.

Those who end up going missing, automatically are shown on the Midnight Channel. A silhouette of a chubby girl with pigtails flashed before his eyes. That clinched it. If he was right, this meant that Sadie was the next victim. All he needed to figure out now was, would Sadie be killed or spirited off like Max, Scarlett, Rodney, or Dawn?

That would be something to sleep on.

* * *

Sleep gave way to a dream. Noah dreamt that he was once again standing in an elevator, face to face with Max and Scarlett. Just like last time, he was surprised by the realism of the dream. Max and Scarlett, however, seemed to not be as surprised as he was.

"Do not be alarmed, mortal!" Max exclaimed, holding his arms up dramatically, "You are fast asleep in the real-"

Scarlett interrupted Max while adjusting her glasses, "I believe he's aware of that."

"It's still really surreal, but yeah, lay off the theatrics," Noah agreed with a nod.

Max scowled and crossed his arms, "Well, excuse me for trying to build up suspense! It worked all of the time when I had time to evil-"

"No it didn't," his "assistant" interrupted him again, before turning to Noah, "It seems that you've awoken to the power of the Wild Card. Good. This makes things on our end much easier to communicate with you."

"Okay, I've got some questions," Noah began, "First, why didn't you tell me Dawn was still around?"

"You didn't ask," Scarlett replied bluntly.

"Like my sidekick and myself," Max explained, "Dawn's also... Ugh, how can I say it? She's going to be helping you solve this case, so to speak."

The bookworm gave a scoff, "By telling me that I'm screwed before it even begins?"

"She's _not _wrong."

Noah fell silent, his eyes widening, before asking, "Woah, woah, woah. Wait a second. What do you mean by, 'She's not wrong?'"

"_Welllll,_" Max dragged his words out, "If you want an honest approximate to surviving, you've got a seventeen percent chance of solving this mystery and coming out of it unscathed. Did we forget to tell you that?"

"Yes," Noah scowled, furrowing his brow, "Yes, you did!"

"You wouldn't have accepted your role as the Wild Card if we did," Scarlett explained, "Yes, there's a fairly good chance that you'll die, but it's either attempting and possibly dying or not attempting and _definitely _dying."

"See?" Max gave a grin, "That's a fair judgement, right, mortal?"

"Okay, first, stop calling me that," Noah replied, before shouting, "And second, no! No it's not a fair judgement! I _knew _I should have listened to her!"

"But you didn't," Scarlett reminded curtly, "As of now, that is most likely too late, as well. You no longer have much choice to forge on. That's what your destiny is from this day forward."

"But enough about that!" Max exclaimed, clasping his hands in front of him, "Anymore questions, mortal? A spot of tea perhaps? Ooh, Scarlett, go get the-"

"He can't have refreshments, you dolt; he's dreaming," Scarlett rolled her eyes.

"...Yeah, I've got a question," Noah spoke up, "Since you guys seem to know more than you put on, what _is _this place?"

"If I'm correct, this is a space in which those awakened to the power of the Wild Card can enter," Scarlett explained, "The only others that can enter here are those who have been possessed by a shadow-generating creature such as Max or I. Or at the very least, have a direct tie to a supernatural entity outside of being a Wild Card."

"Or as we like to call it, the Violence Emanating-"

"None of us call it that," Scarlett shot Max a glare, "We call it the Velvet Room."

"You're no fun, you know that, sidekick?" Max grumbled, before fiddling around his pocket and taking a blue key out of it, "Say, you may need to hold onto this. It'll be... _key _to returning here in the future."

"It's a dream," Noah snarked, but took the key regardless, "I'm not going to have it when I wake up, so what's the point?"

"Ohohoho, that's what _you _think, minion!" Max exclaimed, an amused yet gleeful grin crossing his lips, "Regardless! You are now a guest of this room! This is where the sidekick and I come in! You look pretty wimpy. Did you have trouble fighting the shadows?"

"What do you think?"

"As I thought!" Max exclaimed once more before continuing, "You're going to need the expertise of my glorious brain and my sidekick's tome! However, there is a catch! An _evil _catch! You must take responsibility for all decisions you make! If you don't, we'll cut off all of our... tech support, if you will!"

"...I don't get it," Noah deadpanned, honestly stumped at the point of this.

"We'll worry about that next time," Scarlett waved it off, holding the book, or tome as Max had mentioned, in her hands, "Our biggest concern right now is your Persona. It doesn't seem to fit you in the slightest. You _did _face your shadow, right?"

"I didn't have one," the Wild Card explained, "I mean, Cody did, and I didn't. That's a bad thing, isn't it?"

"Oh my," Max spoke, before shaking his head, "Oh, you poor pitiful mortal! You have a pretty dangerous road ahead of you then!"

"...You're kidding," Noah wasn't liking where this was going.

"Let's just say that your percentile of surviving this has been lessened to around... twelve percent," Scarlett explained.

Out of every unreassuring thing that Noah had heard over the past week, that was the bleakest and most horrifying revelation he had heard yet. Unfortunately for him, neither Max or Scarlett were too keen on elaborating on this.

"Do not be alarmed!" Max entered his dramatic theatrics once again, "You still are one of the Wild Cards, after all! Think of your Persona ability as the number zero! Empty! Yet full of potential!"

Scarlett adjusted her glasses once again, "And I assume that you're not one to have any want to go out of your way and socialize. Is this correct?"

"I kinda stumble into my friendships," Noah blew some air out from his nostrils. Talk about an understatement there. He then asked the million dollar question, "Why?"

"The strongest power, outside of the sheer power of a nuclear warhead, is bonds," Max explained, "At least, with the Wild Cards. We call this power... Social Links. I prefer to call them Links of Budding Villainous Camaraderie, but that just doesn't have a catchy tone to it, now does it?"

"In other words, socialization is key to strengthening your Persona," Scarlett added, "Perhaps you'll find the key to solving this mystery through the bonds you'll gain in the coming days."

Noah mused for a second before finally saying what he thought on this whole matter, "Honestly? That sounds like a load of baloney."

Max and Scarlett's agreement of "Yeah," and "Pretty much," respectively, did not help Noah's confidence one bit.

"You should be waking up soon," Max stated, as the area around them began to fade, "Remember! You aren't alone! You have my glorious self and my lowly sidekick by your side to solve this mystery! Not only to set us free, but to save everyone from dying a horrible death! Uh, no pressure!"

As Noah began to wake up, he noted two things.

The first, was that he actually felt the key Max gave him in his hands as he woke up.

The second?

He just knew they were all screwed.

* * *

**With that, the plot is officially rolling, full-stop! Is it true that Sadie is the next victim? We know that Max and Scarlett's role is providing Noah help, but to what end? What about Dawn's involvement in this newly forged destiny? **

**Next time: **New revelations cause a new page of the mystery to turn, for better or for worse.


End file.
